A MIRACLE IN STONE: 



OR 



The Great Pyramid of Egypt. 



JOSEPH a: SEISS, D.D., 

Pastor of the Churcli of the Holy Communion, Philada., Pa., 

AUTHOR OF " LAST TIMES," " LECTURES ON THE GOSPELS," *' LECTURES 
ON THE APOCALYPSE," " THE GOSf EL IN LEVITICUS," ETC. 



' In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land 

of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord 5 and 

it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of 

Hosts in the land of Egypt." — Is. 19 : 19, 20. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

PORTER & COATES, 

822 CHESTNUT STREET. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, 

Br JOSEPH A. SEISS, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D, C. 




CAXT05 PRESS OF SHERMAS * CO. 



{>•*'■ 



PREFACE. 



This book is meant to give a succinct comprehen- 
sive account of the oldest and greatest existing monu- 
ment of intellectual man, particularly of the recent 
discoveries and claims with regard to it. 

If the half that learned and scientific investigators 
allege respecting the Great Pyramid of Gizeh be true, 
it is one of the most interesting objects on earth, and 
ought to command universal attention. It has been 
unhesitatingly pronounced, and perhaps it is, "the 
most important discovery made in our day and gener- 
ation." 

Simply as an architectural achievement, this mys- 
terious pillar, from the time of Alexander the Great, 
has held its place at the head of the list of " The 
Seven Wonders of the World." But, under the re- 
searches and studies of mathematicians, astronomers, 
Egyptologists, and divines, it has of late been made 
to assume a character vastly more remarkable. Facts 
and coincidences so numerous and extraordinary have 
been evolved, that some of the most sober and phil- 
osophic minds have been startled by them. It would 
verily seem as if it were about to prove itself a sort 
of key to the universe — a symbol of the profoundest 
truths of science, of religion, and of all the past and 
future history of man. So at least many competent 

(3) 



4 PREFACE. 

persons have been led to regard it, after the most 
thorough sifting which the appliances of modern 
science and intelligence have been able to give it. 

Particularly in Scotland, England, and France has 
the subject elicited much earnest interest. Quite a 
number of works and treatises, most of them volumi- 
nous, costly, and learned, have been devoted to it, and 
not without a marked and serious impression. St. 
John Vincent Day, Fellow of the Eoyal Scottish 
Society of Arts, member of sundry institutions of 
Engineers, and honorable librarian of the Philosophical 
Society of Glasgow, says : 

" A former published work on the subject, besides 
one or two papers in the transactions of a scientific 
Society, have of necessity brought me into contact with 
every shade of opinion as to the various theories re- 
specting the Pyramid, and the facts belonging to it. I 
have thus been enabled, both by verbal and written 
discussions and arguments, to ascertain the weight of 
evidence on which theories, assertions, contradictions, 
and alleged facts have been supported ; and I can 
only state that in those cases where the Pyramid sub- 
ject has been examined into with a diligent spirit of 
inquiry, that is with the aim of not merely strength- 
ening preconceived notions or prejudices, but to evolve' 
absolute realities, I have not yet met any one but who 
is more or less convinced by the modern theory.'^ — 
Preface to Papers on the Great Pyramid, 1870. 

In this country, the publications on the subject 
have been very circumscribed. A few tracts, short 
papers, review articles, or incidental discussions in 



PREFACE. 



connection with other subjects^ is about all that has 
thus far appeared from the American press. And as 
the European books are mostly large, expensive, and 
not readily accessible, comparatively few among us 
have had the opportunity of learning what has de- 
veloped in this interesting field. A just resume of 
the matter, of moderate length and price, in plain and 
easy form, would seem to be needed and specially in 
place. 

In the absence of anything of the sort, and with a 
view to what might in measure supply the want, the 
preparation of the following Lectures was undertaken. 
How far the effort has succeeded, the candid reader 
will determine. It has at least been honest. Per- 
suaded of the varied worth of the subject, the author 
has endeavored to be accurate in his presentations, 
and as thorough as the space would allow. For his 
data concerning the Pyramid he has been obliged to 
rely on the original works of explorers, to which due 
reference is given. Though in Egypt in the latter 
part of 1864, with a view to some personal examina- 
tions, a severe sickness, contracted in Syria and Pales- 
tine, prevented him from accomplishing the purpose 
for which he visited the land of the Pharaohs. But 
his interest did not therefore abate. In 1869 he gave 
out a small publication on the Great Pyramid, and 
having tried to master and digest what has thus far 
been adduced by others, he now ventures a larger ex- 
hibition of the case as it presents itself to him. The 
intricacies of mathematics and astronomy, so deeply 
involved in these pyramid investigations, he has in- 



b , PREFACE. 

tentionally avoided, seeking rather to explain for the 
many than to demonstrate for the few. He has con- 
fined himself mostly to descriptions and statements of 
results, which he has sought to give in a way which 
all readers of average intelligence can readily follow 
and understand. 

If what he has thus produced is so far favored as 
to promote a more general and deeper inquiry and 
study into this surprising and most perfect monument 
of primeval man, the chief object of the author will 
have been attained. The interest awakened by the 
Lectures at their oral delivery during the past winter, 
and the numerous applications to procure them in 
print, also encourage the belief that, with the notes 
and amplifications since added, they may perchance be 
acceptable and serve a good purpose. With the hope, 
therefore, of thus contributing something towards the 
furtherance of correct science, true philosophy, and a 
proper Christianity, the author herewith commits 
these sheets to the press, and to an appreciative and 
indulgent public. 

Philadelphia, June 25th, 1877. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface, Page 3 

Diagram, ,.,.<' 10 

LECTURE FIRST. 

GENERAL FACTS AND SCIENTIFIC FEATURES. 

Introduction, p. 13 ; The Chart, p. 15; The History, p. 21 ; 
Modern Scientific Theory, p. 32 ; Pyramid Form and Pro- 
portions, p. 41 ; Pyramid Numbers, p. 45; Size of Great 
Pyramid, p. 50 ; Standard of Linear Measure, p. 57 ; 
"Weight and Capacity Measure, p. 65 ; The Coffer and the 
Ark of the Covenant, p. 68 ; Temperature, p. 70 ; A Metro- 
logical Monument, p. 71 ; The Pyramid's Astronomy, p. 
74 ; The Pyramid's Chronology, p. 79 ; Septenaries and 
Sabbaths, p. 87 : The Centre of the Universe, p. 90 ; 
Whence this Wisdom, p. 91. 

LECTURE SECOND. 

MODERN DISCOVERIES AND BIBLICAL CONNECTIONS. 

Our Era, p. 102 ; Egypt's Past, p. 105 ; The Great Pyramid's 
Disclosures, p. 107 ; The Pyramid and the Prophets, p. 108 ; 
The Pyramid and the Book of Job, p. 114 ; The Pyramid 

(7) 



8 CONTENTS. 

and Christ, p. 120 ; The Pyramid and the Christian Dis- 
pensation, p. 128; The Pyramid and Theology, p. 137; 
The Pyramid and the Day of Judgment, p. 150; The 
Pyramid and the Jew, p. 153 ; The Pyramid and Heaven, 
p. 159 ; The Pyramid and the Spiritual Universe, p. 163 ; 
The Pyramid and Jerusalem, p. 166. 

LECTURE THIRD. 

ANALYSIS OF TRADITIONS, OPINIONS, AND RESULTS. 

The Ancient Traditions, p. 172 ; More Modern Opinions, p. 
178 ; The Tomb Theory, p. 180 ; Something more than a 
Tomb, p. 185 ; Not a Temple of Idolatry, p. 192 ; Historic 
Fragments, p. 194 ; Who was Melchisedec, p. 203 ; The 
Primitive Civilizers, p. 210 ; Job and Philitis, p. 217 ; 
Results, p. 221 ; Primeval Man, p. 227 ; Use of the Pyra- 
mid respecting Faith, p. 231. 

APPENDIX. 

EXTRACTS FROM RECENT "WRITERS. 

Rev. Joseph T. Goodsir, p. 233 ; J. Ralston Skinner, p. 238 ; 
Charles Casey, p. 240 ; John Taylor, p. 241 ; Prof. Piazzi 
Smyth, p. 243 ; J. G., in Edinburgh Courani, p. 248. 



" Every student who enters upon a scientific pursuit, espe- 
cially if at a somewhat advanced period of life, will find not 
only that he has much to learn, but much also to unlearn. As 
a first preparation, therefore, for the course he is about to com- 
mence, he must loosen his hold on all crude and hastily adopted 
notions, and must strengthen himself, by something of an effort 
and a resolve, for the unprejudiced admission of any conclusion 
which shall appear to be supported by careful observation and 
logical argument, even should it prove of a nature adverse to 
notions he may have previously formed for himself, or taken 
up, without examination, on the credit of others. Such an 
effort is, in fact, a commencement of that intellectual discipline 
which forms one of the most important ends of all science." — 
Sir John Herschel. . 



"The fair question is, does the newly proposed view remove 
more difiiculties, require fewer assumptions, and present more 
consistencj'- with observed facts, than that which it seeks to 
supersede? If so, the philosopher will adopt it, and the world 
will follow the philosopher." — Grove's Address to the British 
Association for the Advancement of Science. 

(9) 





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INDICATIONS ON THE DIAGRAM. 



A, A, A, A, Corner sockets of tlie Pyramid's base. 

B, B, B, Pyramid cut in half, viewed from the east. 

C, C, C, Entrance passage. 

D, D, First ascending passage. 

E, E, E, The well. 

F, The subterranean chamber. 

G, G, G, Native rock, left standing. 

H, Horizontal passage to Qtieen's Chamber. 

I, Sabbatic or Queen's Chamber. 

J, Graud niche in Queen's Chamber. 

K, K, Ventilating tubes to Queen's Chamber. 

L, Grand Gallery. 

M, M, M, Rampstones, incisions, and vertical' settings along the sides of 
Grand Gallery's base. 

N, Great step at south end of Grand Gallery. 

O, Granite leaf in anteroom to King's Chamber. 

P, P, Anteroom to King's Chamber. 

Q, King's Chamber. 

E. Grand Coffer in King's Chamber. 

S, S, S, S, S, Chambers of construction. 

T, T, Ventilating tubes to King's Chamber. 

XJ, Supposed undiscovered Chamber. 

V, V, Cartouches of the two Kings, Shufu and Nem-Shufu, otherwise called 
Cheops or Suphis, and Sen-Suphis or Noh-Suphis, under whose co-regency 
the Great Pyramid was built. 

W, W, Sections of next two pyramids, showing their interior openings. 

X, X, Al Mamoun's forced passage. 

Y, Time-marks of the building of the pyramid. 

Z, Z, Z, Z, Casing-stones, now gone. 

4'^ The shading in crossed lines indicates what parts of the Pyramid are 
red granite ; the other portions, as far as known, are of limestone, of a color 
approaching yellowish-white. 



' By the use of a magnifier the lettering and indications on the diagram 
will be brought out in ample distinctness, where not sufficiently clear to the 
naked eye. The print is reduced photographically fiom a drawing of 
large size. 

(11) 



As wards, who long suppose 
All that they spend to be 
Their guardian's liberality, 
Not what inheritance bestows^ 
Their thanks to others ignorantly pay 
For that which they 
At last perceive to be their own, 
To their rich ancestors obliged alone ; — 
So we vainly thought 

Ourselves to Greece much bound 
For arts which we have found 
To be from higher ages brought, 
By their as well as our forefathers taught. 

Gale^s " Court of the Gep tiles. ^' 



(12) 



A MIRACLE IN STONE: 



OR 



J » 



THE GREAT PYRAMID OF EGYPT. 




GENERAL FACTS AND SCIENTIFIC FEATURES. 

NE of the ablest of En gland's Egypto- 
logical writers has said that Egypt is 
the anomaly of the earth's present sur- 
face. The very adaptations and ad- 
justments of the air and solar distances, by 
which vegetable life is sustained in other coun- 
tries, here give place to another code, framed 
expressly for the Nile. The same may be said 
of it with regard to its place in history. It 
has always been somewhat aside from the 
general current of affairs, having its own 
unique constitution and life, and yet closely 
related to all civilized humanity. Through 
whatever path, sacred or profane, we propose 
to^go back to the beginnings, Egypt ivS never 
entirely out of view. Closely secluded from 

2 ( 13 ) 



14 A MIEACLE IN STOlfE. 

ail the rest of the world — the Japan of the 
ages— it still lies at the gateway of the tradi- 
tions of Judea, Greece and Rome; intermingles 
with all the Divine administrations, and con- 
nects, in one way or another, with some of the 
most famous names and events in the annals 
of time. 

It is a land which has been reclaimed and 
created by the Nile, that '-' High Priest of 
streams," 

"Wbose waves hare cast 
More riches round them, as the current rolled 
Through many climes its solitary flood, 
Than if they surged with gold. 

The shoreline, around the several mouths of 
this mysterious river, describes a large semi- 
circle, to which the emptying streams run out 
like the ribs of a spread fan, or like so many 
spokes of a wheel. The centre of this arc 
is the first rocky elevation on the south, about 
ten miles west of Cairo. And, strange to say, 
that centre is artificially and indelibly marked 
by a massive stone structure, of almost solid 
Cyclopean masonry, of a form found in no 
other country, and at once the largest and 
oldest building now standing on the face of the 
earth. This hoary monumental pile is TM 
Great Pyramid of Gize\ of which it is n>y 
purpose to present some account. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 15 



The Chart. 

In order to aid the mind by means of the 
eye, I have caused a diagram of the Great 
Pyramid to be prepared, which, if first care- 
fully examined, will materially contribute to a 
clear understanding of what is to be said. A 



few explanations may be necessary, and hence 
are here given. 

The large square, marked by heavy black 
lines, indicates, the base of the edifice, which 
covers about thirteen acres of ground, equal to 
aboutfour ordinary blocks of our city, including 
their streets. The darkened triangular mass 
represents the body of the pyramid, showing 
the slopes of the sides as they rise to a point 
at the summit. The lines on the outside 
mark the original size, as covered with polished 
casing-stones, all of which have been quarried 
off by the Moslems, to build and ornament 
the mosques and houses of Cairo, or to be burnt 
for lime. About thirty feet of the original edi- 
fice has also disappeared from the top, leaving 
perhaps twenty-four feet square of level space, 
from which the strongest man cannot throw a 
stone, or shoot an arrow, far enough to fall clear 
of the base. Even with so much of the summit 
gone, it is still more than double the height of 



16 A MIBACLE IN STONE. 

the highest steeple or tower in Philadelphia, 
and higher than the highest known steeple or 
tower in the world. 

The elevation shows the pyramid cut in 
half, from north to south, in order to give a 
view of the interior. As here seen, the spec- 
tator is looking from east to west. There are 
no known openings but those which appear 
in these open and unshaded spaces. The dark 
square toward the top (U) indicates an imag- 
inary room which is believed to exist, but not 
yet discovered. 

The only entrance into the edifice, as left by 
the builders, is that low and narrow square 
tube, which begins high up on the north side, 
and runs obliquely down to an unfinished 
room in the solid rock, about one hundred feet 
below the levelled surface on which the pyramid 
stands. The size of this entrance passage is 
not quite four feet high, and a little over three 
feet ^ve inches wide. A man needs to stoop 
considerably to pass through it, and to take 
heed to his steps on account of the steep incline, 
originally finished as smooth as a slate, from 
top to bottom. 

The first upward passage is directly over 
the entrance-tube, and is of the same general 
size and character. It follows the same direc- 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 17 

tion from north to south, and conducts to a 
high, long and beautifully finished opening, 
who^e floor-line is continuous with the passage 
of ascent to it. This is the Grand Gallery, 
twenty-eight feet high, each of whose sides is 
built of seven courses of overlapping stones. 
It is covered by thirty-six large stones stretch- 
ing across the top. It is a little over eighteen 
hundred and eighty-two inches long, and sud- 
denly terminates against an end wall, which 
leans inward. The further opening is low and 
small again, leading into a sort of narrow 
anteroom, in which a double and heavy granite 
block hangs from grooves in the side walls. 

Then follows another low entrance leading 
into w^iat is called the King's Chamber, the 
highest and largest known room in the edifice. 
In this chamber stands the only article of fur- 
niture in the pyramid, the celebrated granite 
Coffer. Above this room are shown what are 
called the chambers of construction, indicating 
how the builders arranged to keep the weight 
of the superincumbent mass from crushing in 
the ceiling of the King's Chamber, which ceil- 
ing consists of nine powerful blocks of granite, 
stretching from one side to the other. The 
dark or crossed shadings about this chamber 
indicate the stones to be granite, all the rest 
of the building not so marked is. of light 



18 A MIEACLE IN STONE, 

limestone. This room is an oblong square, 
four hundred and twelve inches long, two hun- 
dred and six broad and two hundred and thirty 
high. It is ventilated by two tubes, running 
from it to the outer surface. 

Directly under the Grand Gallery, and run- 
ning in the same direction from north to south, 
is a horizontal passage, which starts on a level 
with the entrance into the Grand Gallery, and 
leads to what is called the Queen's Chamber. 
The floor of this room, if floor it may be 
called, measures two hundred and ^ve by two 
hundred and twenty-six inches, and stands on 
the twenty-fifth course of masonry, as the 
King's Chamber stands on the fiftieth course. 
It has a pointed arch ceiling. Though excel- 
lently finished, this room has neither ornament 
nor furniture. There is a line marked evenly 
around its sides at the height of the passage 
of entrance, and a remarkable niche in its 
east wall, the top of which is twenty-five inches 
across and twenty-five inches south from the 
vertical centre of the wall into which it is 
cut. This room also has two tubes leading 
from it, only recently discovered, which the 
builders left concealed by a thin scale over 
each. They are cut regularly, and approach 
inward through the walls to within one inch 
pf the inner surface, which was left as though 



A MIEACLE IN STONE. 19 

no such openings existed back of it. Whether 
these tubes extend to the outer surface has 
not been ascertained. 

Nearly three feet from the beginning of the 
Grand Gallery, on the west side, is a torn and 
ragged opening, in which is the gaping mouth 
of a strange well, running irregularly and 
somewhat tortuously down through the ma- 
sonry and original rock, till it strikes the main 
entrance a short way above the subterranean' 
chamber. Nearly half the way down it ex- 
pands into a rough grotto or wide bulge in the 
opening, making a large irregular subterranean 
bowl. 

Below the entrance passage, and a little to 
the west of it, the dark and rugged opening 
shown represents the hole made by one of the 
Mohammedan caliphs, about A.D. 825, who 
thus cut into the pyramid in search of treas- 
ures, not knowing that there was an open 
passage not far above. 

The small black squares represented at the 
corners of the base indicate the peculiar sock- 
ets, cut eight inches into the living rock, into 
which the foundation corner-stones were set. 
These are characteristics of the Great Pyramid, 
in which it differs from all others, and are of 
special value, in the present ruinous condition 



20 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

of the edifice, in ascertaining the exact original 
corners and the precise lengths of the sides. 

The encompassing circle, drawn to the radius 
of the pyramid's height, indicates the mathe- 
matical idea to which the whole building is 
constructed ; the lengtli of the four sides of 
the square base being the same as the circum- 
ference described bv a snhere, of which the 
vertical height is the radius. It shows the 
edifice in that remarkable feature, to wit, a 
practical squaring of the circle. 

The smaller pyramids below represent the 
next in size and age to the Great Pyramid. 
They are introduced for no other purpose than 
to show the difference of interior between them 
and it ; on which difference an argument is 
founded to prove them mere ignorant imitations 
of the Great PjTamid, and not at all to be 
classed with it in intellectuality and design. 

The hieroglyphics are reproductions of the 
cartouches of the two kings, Shufu and Nem- 
Shufu, who occupied the throne at the time the 
Great Pyramid w\as built. They were dis- 
covered by Colonel Howard Vyse, in 1837, 
roughl}^ painted on the undressed sides of the 
stones in the upper chambers of construction, 
which were never opened until he forced a 
way up to them. 



A MIKACLE IN STONE. 21 

The History. 

There is no kDOwn time within our historic 
periods when this pyramid was not famous. 
Herodotus, the so-called Father of History, as 
early as 445 B.C., made a personal examina- 
tion of it, and devoted some most interesting 
paragraphs to it. It was then already consid- 
ered very ancient. Traditional accounts of its 
erection he gathered through an interpreter 
from an Egyptian priest, and these he has 
recorded with much particularity. His own 
appreciation of the structure, and of the cause- 
way over which the materials were conveyed, 
was that of wonder arid admiration.* 

Homer does not seem to make any allusion 
to it, perhaps for the reason that it had no 
connection with mythology, or with any of his 
heroes. 

Eratosthenes (236 B.C.), Diodorus Siculus 
(60 B.C.), and Strabo and Pliny (about the 
beginning of our era), all wrote of it. The 
latter, in referring to the Pyramids, also says, 
'^ The authors who have written upon them 
are Herodotus, Euhemerus, Durius Samius, 
Aristagoras, Dionysius, Artemedorus, Alex- 

* See Eawlinson's Herodotus, Book II, chap. 124, vol. 2, pp. 
169-176. 



22 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

ander, Polyliistor, Butorides, Autisthenes, 
Demetrius, Demoteles, and Apion."* 

But though the Great Pyramid has been 
standing in its place for 4000 years, it is only 
within a very recent period that there has been 
any rational appreciation of it. For 3000 
years of its existence, up to the time of the 
mediseval Caliph Al Mamoun, no mortal man, 
perhaps, ever penetrated into its upper pas- 
sages and main openings. Certainly, for many 
centuries before him, it was completely closed 
up, no entrance to it being known any more 
to any human being. 

This son of Haroun Al Raschid of the "Ara- 
bian Nights," flattered and almost worshipped 
as a god, was so wrought upon by the romanc- 
ers and fabulists of his court that he was led 
to believe the Great Pyramid crowded full of 
precious treasures. All the dazzling riches, 
jewels, medicines, charms, and sciences of 
Sheddad Ben Ad, the Mussulman's great ante- 
diluvian king of the earth, were made to 
glitter before the avaricious fancy of Al Ma- 
moun. He therefore set his hosts at work to 
quarry out an opening into the wonderful 
treasure-house, full of astonishing riches in- 

* Nat. Hist., torn. 36, sec. 16. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 23 

deed, but not of the sort of which he was 
dreaming. 

With the crude instruments and poor knowl- 
<=>dge which his hordes possessed, it proved no 
easy task to cut through that grand masonry. 
Again and again the thing was pronounced 
impossible. But Mohammedan fanaticism and 
tyranny proved equal to the undertaking ; not, 
however, without straining everything to the 
very utmost, and Al Mamoun's own power to 
the point of revolution. The excavation was 
driven in full one hundred feet, with every- 
thing solid up to that point. Having expended 
all this labor to no effect, all further effort was 
about to be abandoned, when a singular, per- 
haps providential, occurrence served to reani- 
mate exertion. The sound of a falling stone 
in some open space not far beyond them was 
heard, which incited them to dig and bore on, 
till presently they broke through into the reg- 
ular passage-way. They struck this tube just 
where the first ascending passage forks off from 
the descending one. The stone which had 
fallen was one which hung in the top of the 
entrance passage, quite concealing the fact of 
another and upward way. But the newly 
uncovered passage they found stopped by 
a heavy stone portcullis, fitted into it from 



24 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

above as tight as a cork in the mouth of a 
bottle. It was impossible to remove it. It 
remains there still. Al Mamoun caused his 
men to dig and blast around it. Bat even 
beyond the portcullis, the whole passage was 
filled up with great stones from top to bottom. 
Removing one, the next slid down in its place; 
and so another 'and another, each of which 
was removed, till at length the entire upward 
avenue was freed from obstructions. Up went 
the bearded crew, shouting the name of Allah, 
in full confidence that the promised treasures 
were now within their grasp. " Up," as Prof 
Smyth describes it, " up no less than one 
hundred and ten feet of the steep incline, 
crouched hands and knees and chin together, 
through a passage of royally polished lime- 
stone, but only forty-seven inches high and 
forty-one broad, they had painfully to crawl, 
with their torches burning low." Thence they 
emerged into the Grand Gallery, long and tall, 
seven times as high as the passage through 
which they came, empty, however, and darker 
than night. Still the way was narrow and 
steep, only six feet wide at any point, and 
contracted to three at the floor, though too 
high for the power of their smoky lights to 
illuminate. Up and up the smooth and long 
ascending floor-line the marauders pushed 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 25 

their slippery and doubtful way, till near the 
end of the Grand Gallery. Then they clam- 
bered over a three-foot step ; then bowed their 
heads beneath a low doorway, bounded on all 
sides with awful blocks of frowning red gran- 
ite ; and then leaped without further hin- 
drance into the Grand Chamber, the first to 
enter since the Great Pyramid was built.* 



* It is barely possible that there was once a forced entrance 
into the upper parts of the Great Pyramid, long before the 
Mohammedan times. At the beginning of the Grand Gallery 
there is a missing ramp-stone, which once covered the mouth 
of the well. This ramp-stone seems to have been forced out 
from below upwards, as a fragment of it is still seen adhering 
to the next stone, held by the firm cement of the joint. Hence 
it is surmised that some fanatics of the dynasties of Ethiopic 
intruders, or the Persian conquerors after them, forcibly en- 
tered in search of treasures by means of the well, and then 
closed up the entrance again to conceal what they had done. 
This is thought the more probable, as the other pyramids, 
which were used as royal tombs, seem to have been entered and 
rifled at some remote period of the past. But when we consider 
some of the high prophetic meanings connected with the 
Grand Gallery, and of that well out of which it takes its begin- 
ning, we would rather infer that the builders themselves broke 
out that ramp-stone, or sealed on that fragment in a way in- 
dicative of violent bursting out from below, as part of the great 
intention and teaching of the mighty fabric. This is the more 
probable, (1) because no part of that missing ramp-stone has 
ever been found ; (2) because of the extraordinary difficulty of 
breaking away such a stone from within the well ; and (3) 
the difficulty of, and absence of motive for, a removal of the 
stone if broken in by the supposed marauders. Hence we 
conclude that the situation was intentionally so left by the 



26 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

A noble chamber did these maddened Mos- 
lems also find it, clean and garnished, every 
surface of polished red granite, and everything 
indicative of master builders. But the coveted 
gold and treasures were not there. Nothing 
was there but black and solemn emptiness. 
There stood a solitary stone chest, indeed, 
fashioned out of a single block, polished within 
and without, and sonorous as a bell, but open, 
lidless, and empty as the space around it. The 
caliph was astounded. His quarriers muttered 
their anathemas over their deception into such 
enormous, unrequited, and fruitless labors. 
Nor could Al Mamoun quiet the outbreaking 
indignation toward him and his courtiers, 
except by one of those saintly frauds in which 
Mohammedanism is so facile. He commanded 
the discontents to go dig at a spot which he 
indicated, where they soon came upon a sum 
of gold, exactly equal to the wages claimed for 
their work, which gold he had himself secretly 
deposited at the place. When it was found, 
he could not repress his astonishment that 
those mighty kings before the flood were so 
full of inspiration as to be able to count so 

builders themselves, and that no one after them had entered 
the upper parts of the Great Pyramid prior to Al Mamoun' s 
hordes. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 27 

truly what it would cost in Arab labor to break 
open their pyramid ! 

But the great mysterious structure was now 
open. Henceforward any one with interest 
and courage enough to attempt it might enter, 
examine, study, and find out what he could. 

For centuries the Arabians went in and out 
betimes, when able to overcome their super- 
stitious fears. Some of their marvellous tales 
of small miracles and vulgar wonders have 
been put on record. But apart from the mere 
fact of the forcible entrance by Al Mamoun, it 
is agreed that scarcely a shred of their testi- 
mony is at all credible.* 

* The principal Arab writers who give accounts of the 
Pyramids are Abou Ma Sher (died 272 of the Hegira), Ebn 
Khordadbeh (died about 300 of same ^ra), Abou Kihan Mo- 
hammed (about 430), Masoudi (died 345), Abou Abdulhih Mo- 
hammed (died 454), Abd Alatif (born 557), Shehab Eddin 
Ahmed (died about 745). Ebn Abd Al Hokra Makizi (died 
about 845), Soyuti (died 911), etc. The dates given are those 
of the Hegira, to which add 622 to give the year of our era. 

The worth of what these men have recorded, may be learned 
from the following testimonies : 

" The authoritj' of Arab writers is not always to be relied 
on." — Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, Murray's Handbook, 1867, 
p. 168. 

" The only fact which seems to be established by the Eastern 
authors to whom we have now referred (the Arabians), is the 
opening of the Great Pyramid by Al Mamoun ; and even of 
that, no distinct or rational account exists." — Col. Howard 
Vtse. 

Prof. John Greaves (1637) quotes from some of these writers, 



28 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

"We must therefore depend on the explora- 
tions and accounts of the more observant, ap- 
preciative, and philosophic European mind for 
our knowledge of the Great Pyramid. In some 
instances, however, the case is not much im- 
proved. Sir John Mandeville, perhaps the 
greatest English traveller of the middle ages, 
who spent thirty- three years in wanderings 
through the East, visited Egypt and the Pyra- 
mids about A.D. 1350, and has left us a theory 
concerning them, but confesses that he was 
afraid to enter them, because they were re- 
puted to be full of serpents !* 

The earliest writer of modern times from 
whom we have any scientific data with regard 
to the Great Pyramid is Mr. John Greaves, 
Savilian Professor of Astronomy in the Uni- 

and adds, " Thus far the Arabians, which traditions of theirs 
are little better than a romance." 

Professor Smyth, after trying and testing the whole body of 
accounts, says, " We find ourselves standing again just where 
Prof. Greaves stood in 1637, obliged to reject every rag of testi- 
mony from the followers of the false prophet.' ' — Antiquity of 
Intellectual Man," p. 277. 

* Other European authors who have given accounts of the 
Pyramids are Cyriacus, A.D. 1440; Breydenbaeh, 1486; 
Bellonius, 1553 ; Johannes Helfricus, 1565 ; Lawrence Alder- 
sey, 1586 ; Jeane Palerma, 1581 ; Prosper Alpinus, 1591 ; 
Baumgarten, 1594; Sandys, 1610 ; Pietro Delia Vale, 1616; 
De Villamont, 1618; Eabbi Benjamin, 1633; most of whom 
themselves visited the Pyramids. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 29 

versity of Oxford. At his own private expense 
he left London in the spring of 1637 for the 
special purpose of thoroughly exploring these 
ancient edifices, and in 1646 published his 
PUTamldograpliia, giving the results of his 
laborious observations and measurements, 
which are of particular w^orth in obtaining an 
accurate knowledge of this subject. But he 
was soon followed by other explorers, French, 
English, Dutch, Germans, and Italians.* 

Special additions were made to the stock of 
Pyramid information by Nathaniel Davison, 
British Consul at Algiers (1763), wdio resided 
three years in Egypt, frequently visited the 
Great Pyramid, discovered the first of those 
chambers of construction above the so-called 
King's Chamber, drew a profile of the original 
casing-stones, and made the first diagram of 
the supposed appearance of. this pillar when it 
stood complete. -^ 

* Among these may be mentioned De Monconys Q647), 
Thevenot (1655), Melton (1661), Vausleb (1664), Kircher 
(1666), Lebrun (1674), Maillet (1692-1708), De Careri (1693), 
Lucas (1699), Veryard (1701), Qaatremere (1701), Egmdnt 
(1709), Perizonius (1711), Pere Sieard (1715), Shaw (1721), 
Norden (1737), Pocoeke (1743), Dr. Perry (1743), Four- 
mount (1755), Niebuhr (1761). 

f The results of Davison's labors are contained in the 
Memoirs of Rev. Robert Walpole, and are alluded to at some 
length in vol. 19 of the Quarterly Review. Other writers on the 

2* 



30 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

When Napoleon was engaged with his mili- 
tary operations in Egypt (1799), the French 
savants who accompanied his expedition also 
did important service in furnishing a knowl- 
edge of the Great Pyramid. They surveyed 
the ground. They determined the value of the 
location in trigonometrical relations. They 
found two of the '' encastrements," or incisions 
in the rock, meant to serve as sockets for the 
original corner-stones of the foundation. Their 
observations and mostly very accurate mea- 
surements, with cuts, engravings, and descrip- 
tions of the Great Pyramid, were subsequently 
published, in large and elegant form.* 

Very splendid contributions to our knowl- 
edge of the subject were made by Colonel (after- 
wards General) Howard Yyse in his three large 
royal octavo volumes, containing the results 
of seven months' labor, with a hundred or more 
assistants, in exploring and measuring the 

subject after him, were Bruce (1768), L'Abbe De Binos (1777), 
Savary (1777), Volney (1783), Browne (1792-98), Devon 
(1799). 

* See Colonel Ooutelle's remarks (1801), and particularly M. 
Jomard's descriptions (1801). 

Other writers are Hamilton (1801), Dr. Whitman (1801), 
Dr. Wilson (1805), M. Caviglia (1817), M. Belzoni (1817), 
Signore Athanasi (1817), Dr. Eichardson (1817), Mr. Web- 
ster (1827), Wilkinson (1831), Mr. St. John (1832), Captain 
Scott and Mr. Agnew (1837). 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 31 

Pyramids, in 1837. It is he especially who, 
at the expense of a large fortune, laid the foun- 
dations for some of the most brilliant and 
important developments to be found in all the 
scientific world of our century. He reopened 
the ragged hole driven into the stupendous 
edifice by the semi-savages of Al Mamoun, and 
made some others himself, part of which were 
equally fruitless. He uncovered again the two 
indented sockets of the north base corners. 
He discovered and reopened the remarkable 
ventilating tubes of the King's Chamber. He 
cut a way through the masonry above that 
chamber, and found four other openings besides 
the one discovered by Davison. He found in 
those recesses various quarry-marks in red 
paint, proving that writing was known and 
practiced in the fourth Egyptian dynasty. 
Among these marks were the cartouches of the 
co-sovereign brothers who reigned at the time 
the Great Pyramid was built. He also found 
some of the original casing-stones still fast in 
their places, as well as portions of a splendid 
pavement which once surrounded the edifice. 
In addition to these new discoveries he fully 
confirmed what had been ascertained before, 
and served to bring this marvellous structure 
within the sphere of modern scientific investi- 



32 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

gation. Through him. Sir John Herschel es- 
poused the belief that the Great Pyramid 
possesses a truly astronomical character, and 
that its narrow tubic entrance pointed to some 
polar star, from which the date of the build- 
ing is determinable. At Yyse's instance this 
astronomer made the calculation, and found 
the pointing to indicate the same period of 
time which, on other and independent data, 
had been concluded as the period of the Great 
Pyramid's building. And thus w^as laid the 
basis from which a new theory of this marvel- 
lous pillar has sprung. 

The Modern Scientific Theory. 

Taking what had thus been produced with 
regard to the Great Pyramid, John Taylor 
(one of the firm of Taylor & Hessey, publishers 
of the London Magazine, and subsequently 
of the firm of Taylor & Wallace, publishers 
to the University of London), undertook to 
wrestle with the questions: Why was this 
pi/ramid huilt? And who hu'dt it? Canvass- 
ing the whole problem in the light of history, 
religion, and science, he came to some very 
surprising conclusions, involving an altogether 
new departure in Pyramid investigations, and 
enunciating a number of facts with regard to 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 33 

the mathematical features of the Great Pyra- 
mid, which once were ridiculed, but are now 
generally admitted as demonstrably true. In 
1859 he published a small volume, in which he 
proposed "to recover a lost leaf in the world's 
history," and gave his processes and the results. 
Without having seen the Great Pyramid, but 
on the basis of the facts recorded by others, 
he gave it as his theory and conviction that 
the real architects of this edifice were not 
Egyptians, but men of quite another faith and 
branch of the human family, who, by an im- 
pulse and commission from heaven, and by the 
special aid of the Most High, induced and 
superintended the erection of that mighty 
structure, as a memorial for long after times, 
to serve as a witness of inspiration, and of the 
truth and purposes of God, over against the 
falsities and corruptions of a degenerate and 
ever degenerating world. In other words, he 
claimed to find, in the shape, arrangements, 
measures, and various indications of the Great 
Pyramid, an intellectuality and numerical 
knowledge of grand cosmical phenomena of 
earth and heavens, which neither Egypt nor 
any of the nations possessed, or could even 
understand, from a thousand years ago, back 
to the origin of nations. 



34 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

This was a bold, striking, and far-reaching 
presentation, and one well worthy of the atten- 
tion of the thinkers of our age, both religious 
and philosophical. Very few, however, paid 
much attention to his vigorous little book. 
Yet the grounds on which he proceeded and 
the processes employed, were so purely within 
the domain of science, and hence so ea^sy of 
decisive refutation if not true, that scientists 
could hardly be fair to their profession without 
some investigation of the matter. Sir John 
Herschel was certainly much impressed with 
some of the results and conclusions brought 
out by Mr. Taylor, and also very powerfully 
used them in his papers on the standard of 
British measures, over against the falsely 
founded system of metres, originated by the 
French infidels and communists. 

A few years after the appearance of Mr. 
Taylor's book, it arrested the attention and 
enlisted the interest of Prof C. Piozzi Smyth, 
of Edinburgh, Astronomer Royal for Scotland. 
Having investigated the subject to some extent, 
he presented a paper to the Royal Society of 
Edinburgh, in 1864, giving the results of his 
researches and calculations to test the truth of 
some of Mr. Taylor's startling presentations, 
and setting forth his acquiescence in many of 



A MIEACLE IN STONE. 35 

the details, though on somewhat different 
grounds. These investigations and conclusions 
of Prof. Smyth were published the same year, 
in his book, Our Inheritance in the Great Pyra- 
mid^ a new, revised, and enlarged edition of 
which was published in 1874. This book, in 
its revised form, is perhaps the best from which 
to get a fall impression, within a limited space, 
of the nature and grounds of the modern 
scientific theory on the subject. 

• The better to satisfy himself, and in order 
to clear up some matters of uncertainty in the 
case, Prof. Smyth, at his own expense, went 
to Egypt, and spent the winter and spring of 
1865, devoting the time to the work of testing, 
by the best modern scientific appliances, what 
others had recorded concerning this pyramid. 
To facilitate his operations, he and his brave 
wife took up their abode in some of the tombs 
in the vicinity, where they lived and worked 
from the first of January to the end of April. 
The results of these self-denying labors were 
given to the public in three brilliant volumes, 
in 1867, entitled, Life and Work at the Great 
Pyramid, with in a sequel the year following. 
On the Antiquity of Intellectual Man. 

From the publication of these very valuable 
books, various discussions in learned societies 



36 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

and the public prints followed ; new investi- 
gators entered upon the subject ; and many 
converts to the new theorv were made. A 
number of able papers appeared, confirming 
and enlarging what had previously been de- 
duced, and fully supporting the scientifically 
grounded and growing belief that this vener- 
able pillar has about it something more than 
a mere tomb for some rich and ambitious 
old Pharaoh, and something infinitely more 
than was ever in the power of the Egyptians 
to originate, or even to understand. ' In other 
words, that it was designed and erected under 
the special guidance and direction of God, and 
bears a somewhat similar relation to the phys- 
ical universe which the Bible bears to the 
spiritual. ; 

Upon first blush such a theory would seem 
to be the very height of fanaticism and non- 
sense. And so a few, in their ofiended conceit 
and prejudice, rather than from any solid 
scientific reasons, have regarded it. As com- 
monly, in all such cases, the power of coarse 
ridicule has been brought to bear against it ; 
but thus far no candid and thorough attempt 
has been made to overcome the many solid and 
outstanding evidences on which it rests. Good- 
sir, in his volume on Ethnic Trispiration, has 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 37 

justly said, "The scientific symbolism of that 
world's wonder now stands nearly disclosed 
to view, resting on its own independent basis 
of proof, which is not only vouched for, but 
defended by advocates undeniably competent 
to their work, and as yet occupying inexpugn- 
ably their ground." Every attack upon it 
thus far has resulted in such signal failure as 
the more to confirm it. 

It is of course impossible here to go into all 
the particulars, processes, and scientific induc- 
tions on which this theory rests. These are 
given, in all their surprising force, in the able 
original works to which I have referred, and 
to which I direct all who wish to sift the matter 
thoroughly or inform themselves fully. Mathe- 
maticians and scientists will find enough there 
to call all their knowledge into play, and to 
occupy their inquiries and skill for as much 
time as they may have to give. My office is 
of a much simpler and easier sort. A brief 
resume of the principal facts, to enable those 
who hear me to form some fair opinion of the 
matter, is all that I propose, feeling that if I 
can succeed in this, I shall have done some- 
thing of worth in making known the wonders 
of wisdom so long ago treasured up in the 
Great Pyramid of Gizeh. 



38 A MIBACLE IN STONE. 



The Yarious Pyeamids. 

There are numerous pyramids in Egypt. 
Including all sizes and forms, perhaps three 
dozen may still be found. They belong to dif- 
ferent ages, from B.C. 2170 down to B.C. 1800. 
Externally, they all are more or less of the 
same general form. A few are not much in- 
ferior in dimensions, materials, and outward 
finish to the Great Pyramid itself. But there 
is one, the northernmost of the line, which 
has ever held the pre-eminence, and which has 
ahvays been regarded with the greatest interest. 
The sacred books of the Hindoos speak of three 
pyramids in Egypt, and they describe this as 
" the golden mountain," and the other two as 
mountains of silver and less valuable material. 
By a sort of intuition, all nations and tongues 
unite in recognizing this one as The Great 
Pyramid. It covers the most space. It occu- 
pies the most commanding position. It is 
built with most skill and perfection of work- 
manship. And its summit rises higher heaven- 
ward than that of any other. 

This greatest of the pyramids is also the 
oldest of them. Lepsius says, " The builders 
of the Great Pyramid seem to assert their right 
to form the commencement of monumental 



A MIKACLE IN STONE. 39 

history." " To the Pyramid of Cheops the 
first link of our whole monumental history is 
fastened immovably, not for Egyptian, but for 
universal history." Prof. Smyth holds that 
*' the world has no material and contemporary 
record of intellectual man earlier than the 
Great Pyramid." Beckett Denison agrees that 
this is " the earliest and largest of all the 
pyramids." Hales in his Analysis, Sharpe in 
his History of Egypt, Bunsen in his Egypfs 
Place in History, and the best authors in gen- 
eral, make the same representations. There 
is no evidence on earth, known to man, that 
"ever a true pyramid was built before the erec- 
tion of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh. 

Here, then, is a fact to start with which 
utterly confounds the ordinary laws in' human 
affairs. The arts of man left to himself, never 
attain perfection at once. At all times and 
in all countries, there is invariably a series of 
crude attempts and imperfect beginnings first, 
and thence a gradual advance from a less per- 
fect to a more complete. Styles of architec- 
ture do not spring into existence like Minerva 
from the brain of Jupiter, fullgrown and per- 
fect from the start. But here all ordinary 
laws are reversed, and the classic dream finds 
reality. As with the beginning of our race, 



40 A MIKACLE IN STONE. 

SO with the pyramids, the most perfect is first 
and what comes after is deteriorate. The 
Great Pyramid comes upon the scene and 
maintains its grand superiority forever, with- 
out any preceding type of its class whence 
the idea was evolved. Renan says, "It has no 
archaic epoch." Osburn says, " It bursts upon 
us at once in the flower of its highest perfec- 
tion." It suddenly takes its place in the world 
in all its matchless magnificence, "without 
father, without mother," and as clean apart 
from all evolution as if it had dropped down 
from the unknown heavens. We can no more 
account for its appearance in this fashion on 
ordinary principles than we can account for 
the being of Adam without a special Divine 
intervention. 

This pyramid once in existence, it is not 
difiicult to account for all the rest. Having 
been taught how to build it, and with the grand 
model ever before them, men could easily build 
more. But how to get the original with its 
transcendent superiority to all others is the 
trouble. The theory of Mr. Taylor and Prof 
Smyth would admirably solve the riddle ; but 
apart from that, there is no knowledge of man 
by which it can be solved. People may guess 
and suppose ; but they can tell us nothing. 



A MIEACLE IN STONE. 41 

The evidences also are, that the whole 
family of Egyptian pyramids, and there are 
no others, is made up of mere blind and bun- 
gling imitations of the Great Pyramid. They 
take its general form, but they every one miss 
its intellectuality and take on none of their 
own. None of them has any upper openings 
or chambers ; and the reason is furnished in 
what Al Mamoun on making his forced en- 
trance found in the Great Pyramid, to wit, 
the fact that its upward passage-way was stop- 
ped by its builders, filled up, hidden, and then 
for the first time discovered. These upper 
openings, though the main features of the 
Great Pyramid's interior, were wholly un- 
known to the copyists, and hence were not 
copied. The downward passage and the sub- 
terranean chamber were known, and could be 
inspected ; hence these features appear in all 
the pyramids. It would be difficult to con- 
ceive more conclusive internal evidences of 
mere imitation, or of the certainty that the 
Great Pyramid is the real original of all pyra- 
mids. All the rest are but vulgar and un- 
meaning piles of stones in comparison with it. 

Form and Proportions. 
A building having a square base and its four 



42 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

sides equally sloped inwards to a single point 
at the top is a pyramid. There may be other 
and various pyramidal forms, but they are not 
true pyramids. In stone architecture such a 
figure requires the edifice to be solid, or mainly 
so, and can furnish very little internal space 
for any practical use. It is therefore a style 
of building which is itself something peculiar 
and quite unfitted to any of the ordinary pur- 
poses for which man erects edifices. 

But not all pyramids have the same relative 
proportions or degree of slope in their sides. 
In this respect the Great Pyramid stands alone 
among all other pyramids or buildings oh earth. 
Plato says, that " God perpetually geome- 
trizes," and this pyramid presents a clear and 
solid geometric figure with all its proportions 
conformed to each other. 

Science has frequently alluded to a certain 
triplicity or triunity of nature, assuming some- 
thing of the character of a law of creation, 
and traceable as a sort of pervading analogy 
of Providence. Poets, those close observers 
and portrayers of nature, have likewise refer- 
red to it. The crust of the earth is composed 
of a grand triplicity of primary, secondary, 
and tertiary stratifications. Compte beheld 
the laws of mind as made up of supernatural. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 43 

metaphysical, and positive stages in mental 
evolution. Barke thought he saw a parallel 
between mythology and geology, and classified 
the former according to the three stages of the 
earth's formation. A modern chemist reduces 
all the properties of matter to attraction, re- 
pulsion, and vitality. And a late attempt to 
give " a basic outline of universology," com- 
prises all things in unism, duism, and trin- 
ism. Without accepting these things as settled 
truths, they yet serve to show a primary some- 
thing, which, to the most observant minds, 
bespeaks an original triplicity, putting itself 
forth as a rudimental law. And if the Great 
Pyramid was really intended to symbolize the 
universe, we would also expect to find in it 
some recognition of this triplicity or triunity. , 
Accordingly we do find this to be the funda- 
mental figure of the Great Pyramid, which is 
at the same time the geometrical skeleton of 
the earth, if not also of the whole physical 
and spiritual universe. 

It was a great achievement of our science to 
ascertain that the earth is a revolving globe. 
But this spherity is the mere clothing of a 
mathematical figure to which it is formed. 
As a revolving body, the earth has an axis of 
rotation, that is, it makes all its revolutions in 



44 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

one and the same unvarying direction, indicat- 
ing a primary straight line through its centre 
to its poles. Using this as a base line, which 
it is in fact, and drawing two equal lines from 
the surface at the poles to the highest point of 
surface at the equator, the resyilt is one of the 
simplest compound figures in geometry — a 
triangle — just what we have in the outline 
figure of the Great Pyramid, and in each of 
its four faces. 

Examining this figure more closely, still 
other remarkable properties appear. Viewed 
as a triangle, if we square its base line, as 
squared in fact in the Great Pyramid, and add'^ 
together the lengths of the four sides, we have 
the exact equal of a circle drawn with the 
vertical height for a radius. In other words, 
we have here a figure of the framework of the 
earth, and that figure possessed of the propor- 
tion which is known to mathematicians as the 
7z proportion, — thus presenting a practical 
solution of that puzzling problem which has 
cracked so many niediaeval and modern brains, 
to wit, the quadrature of the circle. Hence 
John Taylor says of the builders of the Great 
Pyramid, that '' they imagined the earth to be 
a sphere, and as they knew that the radius of 
a circle must bear a certain proportion to its 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 45 

circumference, they built a four-sided pyramid 
of sucli a height in proportion to its base, that 
its perpendicular would be equal to the peri- 
meter of the base." 

The other pyramids have the same general 
form copied after this, but these mathematical 
proportions and signs of high intellectuality 
appear nowhere but in the Great Pyramid. 
And when Jomard says, ^' The pyramids have 
preserved to us the certain type of the size of 
the terrestrial globe," he utters a great truth, 
but what is not true in any definite measure 
save of the Great Pyramid. 

Pyramid Numbers. 

The peculiar figure and shape of the Great 
Pyramid fixes a certain system of numbers. 
It has five corners : four equal corners at the 
base and one unique corner at the summit. 
Hence it has live sides ; four equal triangular 
sides and the square under-side on which it 
stands. Here is an emphatic count of fives 
doubled into the convenient decimal. This 
count is so inherent and marked as to be a 
strong characteristic, calling for the number 
five, and multiplies powers and geometrical 
proportions of it, as loudly as stones can be 
made to speak. 



46 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

From this also it would seem to have its 
name. Though diifererit authors have sought 
to derive this word from the Greek, Arabic, and 
other sources, the evidence is rather that it 
came direct from the builders of the edifice, 
and was meant to describe it in the common 
language then used in the country. The 
nearest to that language is the Coptic. And 
in the ancient Coptic, pyr mesnas ,dwisio72, the 
same as peres in Daniel's interpretation of the 
handwriting on the wall ; and met means ten. 
Chevalier Bunsen, without thought of com- 
bining them for the derivation of the word 
pyramid, gives these words separately and 
affixes to them these significations.* And put- 
ting them together— p?/r-?7?e^— we have the 
name given to this structure. And that name, 
in the language of the ancientEgyptians, means 
the division of ten. 

Accordingly a system of fiveness runs 
through the Great Pyramid and its measure 
references. Counting five times five courses of 
the masonry from the base upwards we are 
brought to the floor of the so-called Queen's 
Chamber. The measures of that chamber all 
answer to a standard of five times five inches. 

"^ See Egypt's Place in History, vol, i, p. 477, and vol. iv, p. 
107. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 47 

It is characterized by a deep sunken niche in 
one of its walls, which niche is three times five 
feet high, consisting of five strongly marked 
stories, the topmost five times ^ve inches 
across, and its inner edge just five times five 
inches from the perpendicular centre of the 
wall into which it is cut. So if we count five 
times Rve courses higher^ or ten times ^ve from 
the base, the last brings us on the floor of the 
King's Chamber. That chamber contains just 
ten fives of cubic space and is just ten ^ve 
times the size of the mysterious granite Coffer 
which stands in it. Each of its walls is fin- 
ished with five horizontal courses of polished 
granite stones. The number of these stones 
in all is four fives multiplied by ^ve. Above 
it are five chambers of construction ; and the 
Coffer itself has five solid external sides. 

This intense fiveness could not have been 
accidental, and likewise corresponds with the 
arrangements of God, both in nature and rev- 
elation. Note the fikbness of termination to 
each limb of the human body, the ^Ye senses, 
the ^Ye books of Moses, the twice five precepts 
of the Decalogue. But this is not all. Science 
now tells us that the diameter of the earth at 
the poles is ^yb hundred millions of units, 
about the length of our inches. Five times 



48 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

five of these units or inches is the twice ten 
millionth part of the earth's axis of rotation. 
Ten times ten of these units or inches counted 
for a day, when divided into the united lengths 
of the Great Pyramid's four sides, give the 
exact number of days in the true year. As 
near as science has been able to determine the 
mean density of the earth (5.70), ^ve cubic 
inches of it weighs just the fifty times fiftieth 
part of the Coffer's contents of water at a tem- 
perature of one-fifth of the distance which the 
mercury rises from the freezing to the boiling- 
point. 

Nine is another number very specially marked 
in the Great Pyramid, particularly in its sun- 
w^ard .portions and tendencies. Its practical 
shaping is nine to ten. For every ten feet that 
its corners retreat diagonally inwards in the 
process of building they rise upward or sun- 
ward nine feet.* At high noon the sun shines 

* From this 10,9 shape of the Great Pyramid there results 
also important confirmation of the measurements of the base 
side and height. " The side angle computed from it amounts to 
51° 50^ 39. K^; the 5r angle being 51° 5F 14.3^^; and the angle 
from Mr. Taylor's interpretation of Herodotus, or to the effect 
of the Great Pyramid having been built to represent an area on 
the side equal to the height squared 51° 49^ 25^^. The vertical 
heights in pyramid (earth-commensurated) inches are at the 
same time, using the same base side length for them all by the 
10,9 hypothec, 5811 ; by the tt hypothesis 5813 ; and by the 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 49 

on all five of its corners and four of its sides, 
counting nine of its most characteristic parts. 
Tiie Grand Gallery is roofed with four times 
nine stones, and the main chamber with 
exactly nine. And here again we have a 
nature reference which nations have expended 
millions to ascertain. The vertical height of 
the Great Pyramid multiplied by 10 to the 9th 
power (10^) tells the mean distance of the sun 
from the earth, that is one thousand million 
times the pyramid's height, or 91,840,000 
miles. 

The sun-distance used to be put down by 
astronomy at nearly 96,000,000 miles. Later 
computations, at the opposition of Mars in 
1862, reduced this estimate to between ninety- 
one and ninety-three millions. The results of 

Herodotus-Taylor hypothesis 5807." The nearness to identity 
of the results of such diverse methods amply proves that the 
assumed measure of each base side, by taking the mean of all 
the practical measurements between the sockets, cannot be far 
from the true measure laid out by the architects, and hence a 
just foundation on which to proceed in any calculations or con- 
clusions that may result. Those who are disposed to rid them- 
selves of such conclusions on the ground that we do not know 
with sufficient accuracy what is the length of the pyramid's base 
sides, ought to consider these remarkable facts, and meet them 
in a fair and scientific way, or else admit that there is no such 
vitiating uncertainty as they too fondly assume without being 
able practically or by any process to prove that our figures are 
false. 



50 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

the observations of the transit of Venus in 
1874 have confirmed these lower figures, 
making the limit of uncertainty to lie between 
ninety-one and ninety-two and a half millions. 
Taking the mean of the estimates as the best 
that modern science has been able to i^esent, 
we have a very close agreement with the Great 
Pyramid's symbolizations. And when science 
has once definitely settled the point, there is 
now every indication that the figures will agree 
precisely with what was not only known to 
the architects of this pyramid, but was by 
them imperishably memorialized in stone more 
than 4000 years ago! 

All this proves not only intelligent design 
on the part of these builders, but an acquaint- 
ance with nature, and a genius for the ex- 
pression of nature's truths in the forms and 
measures of a plain, simple, and enduring 
structure, which any less attainment than that 
of our greatest living astronomers and savants 
could not so much as understand. 

Size of the Great Pyeamid. 

The opinion was given by Lepsius, and from 
him has been largely accepted as a law in 
Egyptian pyramid building, that each king, 
when he eame to the throne, began to excavate 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 51 

a subterranean chamber with an inclined pas- 
sage, which chamber was meant for his tomb ; 
the first year he covered it with a few squared 
blocks of stone, the next added more, and so 
continued till he died, leaving it to his suc- 
cessor t© finish and close the edifice. Hence 
the size of each pyramid would depend upon 
the accident of the duration of the king's life. 
Perhaps it was so after pyramids came to be 
a fashion, though some long-lived kings have 
only small pyramids. But it is very certain 
that the Great Pyramid did not grow in this 
way. Its whole character was calculated and 
determined beforehand. The drafts of its 
architects still exist, graven in. the rocks, as 
Job wished that his words might be in order 
to last forever. There they are in the imme- 
diate vicinity of the great building, the pro- 
jection of whose shape and features, without 
and within, they still show to every one who 
wishes to examine them. By them it is proven 
that the whole structure in its angles and math- 
ematical proportions was contemplated and 
designed from the start.* Besides, the subter- 

* " These azimuth trenches are a sort of large open ditches 
spread about here and there on the surface of the hill, before 
the eastern face of the Great Pyramid, and not very noticeable 
except for their relative angles in a horizontal plane ; for these 
gave me the idea at first sight of being strangely similar to the 



52 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

ranean chamber of the Great Pyramid which 
this "law" would require to be finished first 

dominant angles of the exterior of the Great Pyramid. To 
determine whether this idea was true or not, I determined to 
measure all the angles rather carefully." " Most happily, too, 
every part of them which has to enter into the measurement, 
still exist visibly and tangibly ; so that good painstaking 
modern observation is perfectly able of itself, either to prove 
or disprove what has just been advanced," i.e., their corres- 
pondence to the angle of the foot of the Great Pyramid. — " Life 
and Work at Great Pyramid," vol. ii, p. 125, vol. iii, p. 28. 

" For several reasons I consider these trenches have been orig- 
inally incised for instructing the masons in the exact angular 
character of the very mathematically formed building they were 
engaged on, and while the work was in progress." — "Antiquity 
of Intellectual Man," p. 192. 

" If you take the Great Pyramid as it was when in masonry 
progress or without its final casing film, and if from the centre 
of the then base you draw its proportion «• circle, the conjoined 
axes of north and south azimuth trenches will form a tangent 
to that circle at its most protuberant point in front of the 
middle east side. And further, if from the points toward the 
north and south extremities of the east side of base where the 
»• circle cuts into the area of the base you draw rectangular 
offsets from that side eastward, these offsets will be found to 
define the places of the admirably square cut outer ends of 
both north and south azimuth trenches with as much accuracy 
as the present standing and broken sides of the pyramid admit 
of in their measurement." — Mr. W. Petrie, quoted by Pnor. 
Smyth. 

Besides these trenches there is also a system of inclined tun- 
nels cut into the rock of the hill, which some have taken to be 
the remains or the commencement of another pyramid of small 
size. But Prof. Smyth found them arranged on the same 
principles contained in the Great Pyramid, and only in it. 
He says of them: "There is a long descending entrance pas- 
sage, an upward and opposite rising passage from the middle of 
that like the Great Pyramid's first ascending passage ; then the 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 53 

is just that part which never was finished at 
all. It is only half cut out,— a mere pit with- 
out a bottom. Herodotus also gathered from 
the Egyptians themselves that ten years were 
spent in building preparatory works, which are 
hardly less remarkable and elaborate than the 
pyramid itself, and that everything was or- 
ganized on an immense scale, keeping 100,000 
men continually at work, relaying them every 
three months. Furthermore, all the search- 
ings into this pyramid have failed to reveal 
any signs of the patching of one year's work 
to that of another, or any arrangements for 
such a contingency as the possible death of 
the king before the work was complete. On 
the contrary, everything argues one continuous 

beginning of a horizontal passage like that to the Queen's 
Chamber, and finally the commencement of the upward rising 
of the Grand Gallery with its remarkable ramps on either side. 
The angles, heights, and breadths of all these are almost exactly 
the same as obtain in the Great Pyramid." They are evidently 
the experimental models, cut beforehand into anunneededpart 
of the hill, giving the plan to which the Great Pyramid was 
to be wrought, and to which the builders have accurately con- 
formed the mighty structure. Here, then, in these trenches and 
tubes we still find the plans and drawing to which these ancient 
masons worked, both of the outside angles and the inside ar- 
rangements. We cannot conceive that these vast and still 
enduring charts giving the features of the Great Pyramid in, 
all its greatness would thus have been cut if the whole work 
had been conditioned to the uncertainty of the duration of the 
king's life. Osburn entirely repudiates Lepsius's "law of 
pyramid building." 



54 A MIRACLE IN STONE 

and fore -calculated job, evenly carried through 
from beginning to end, just as a farmer would 
build his barn or a baker his oven. Hence if 
there is anything in Lepsius's '* law of pyramid 
building," the Great Pyramid never came 
under it, but received its being and dimensions 
from a foregoing plan of the whole, pursued 
from commencement to completion without 
interruption or any thought of it. 

An immense amount of careful endeavor 
has been expended by different men at differ- 
ent periods to ascertain the precise measure- 
ments of the Great Pyramid's base sides. And 
since the discovery of the corner sockets it 
would seem as if there should be no difficulty 
in arriving at exact data on that point. But 
the length to be measured is so great, and the 
mounds of rubbish lying between the points 
from which the measure is to be taken are so 
immense and irregular, that absolute certainty 
has not been reached and cannot be till some 
rich man, society, or government performs the 
work of removing the impedihients and opens 
a clear way from corner to corner. The 
measurements thus far made from these sockets 
by scientific men give us a mean of nine thou- 
sand one hundred and forty of our inches as 
the length of either of the Great Pyramid's 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 55 

four sides, that is, a fraction over seven hun- 
dred and sixty-one and a half feet, or nearly 
one-sixth of a mile.* 

With this measure for the base of the sides, 
and the angle of 51° 51' 14'^ for their slope, 
the lines intersect in a point of perpendicular 
altitude ^ve thousand eight hundred and nine- 
teen inches from the level of the pavement dis- 
covered by Colonel Vyse. But there are other 
ways of ascertaining the height. By the 
barometer, by trigonometry, and by the actual 
measurement of the heights of the two hun- 

* The following is a list of these measures : 

The French savants in 1799, north side only, 9163 Eng. inches. 

Colonel Howard Vyse in 1836, " " " 9168 " " 

Mahmoud Bey in 1862, «' '" '' 9162 '' •" 

Alton and Inglis in 1865, mean of four sides, 9110 " " 
English Ordnance Surveyors in 1869, mean 

of four sides, 9130 " " 



Mean of the five, ' 9144 " " 

The Aiton-Inglis measuring was repeated four times, and the 
mean given is that of the four measures, which would justly 
entitle this figure to more weight than simply as one of the five. 
Very moderately weighting it beyond the rest gives us the 
general mean of nine thousand one hundred and forty inches, 
with a small margin of possible error on either side. It is 
greatly to be regretted that we cannot refer to absolutely cer- 
tain figures, and so shut out all possible cavil ; but as the 
matter stands, the most reasonable and scientific way of esti- 
mating the truth is that of taking the properly weighted mean 
of the several very competent measurers, each anxious to be 
esact, and one as liable to be too high as the other too low. 



56 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

dred and two remaining courses of the masonry, 
the elevation to the present plateau at the 
top can be taken. And by eight of the most 
distinguished measurers who have performed 
the operation, from Jomard and Cecile to 
Alton and Inglis, the mean comes out five 
thousand four hundred and forty inches. Prof. 
Smyth makes it ^ve thousand four hundred 
and forty-five. Each side of the present sum- 
mit area is four hundred inches. Adding one 
hundred inches, the thickness of the casing 
stones, to each side, the square would be six 
hundred inches on each outer line. At the 
angle of 61° 51' 14'' this would give a vertical 
height of three hundred and eighty-two inches, 
yielding 5440 + 382 = 5822 of our inches as 
the full original height of the Great Pyramid. 
The same estimate is confirmed on other and 
independent methods of computation ; thus 
also confirming the estimate of the length of 
the base sides, the one process yielding within 
three inches of what is reached by the other. 
Within a narrow margin of uncertainty in 
which actual measurement always differs from 
absolute mathematical exactness, we may 
therefore take it as reasonably settled that the 
Great Pyramid's sides are each nine thousand 
one hundred and forty of our inches long, and 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 57 

slope upward to a point originally five thou- 
sand eight hundred and twenty of the same 
inches in perpendicular height above the line 
of the pavement below. This gives us the 
vastest and highest stone building ever erected 
by human hands.* 

Osburn says, " its long shadow darkens the 
fields of Gizeh as the day declines," and that 
" when the spectator can obtain a distinct 
conception of its vastness no words can de- 
scribe the overwhelming sense of it which 
rushes upon his mind. He feels oppressed and 
staggers beneath a load," to think that such a 
mountain was piled by the handiwork of man. 

Standard of Linear Measure, 
From these measurements of size result the 
Tt proportion which is now admitted to be 
practically exhibited in this pyramid, whether 

* The highest cathedrals in the world are Strasburg, five », 
thousand sis hundred and sixteen inches ; Rouen, five thousand" ^ 
five hundred and sisty-eight ; St. Stephen's, Vienna, five thou- 
sand two hundred and ninety-two; St. Peter's, Rome, five thou- 
sand one hundred and eighty-four ; Amiens, five thousand and 
eighty-eight ; Salisbury, four thousand eight hundred and forty- 
eight ; Freiburg, four thousand six hundred and twenty ; St. 
Paul's, London, four thousand three hundred and thirty-two. 
The Cathedral at Cologne was meant to be higher, but never 
has reached this height, neither has any other known tower. 
The oldest standing edifice in the world is thus the highest by 



58 A MIRACLE IlSr STONE. 

there by accident or by intention. The width 
is J 01* V ^f ^^^ height, and each facq is al- 
most exactly the square of the height. 

From such high science we are also led to 
expect the record of some definite standard of 
measure, which every one would naturally wish 
to learn of from such wonderful architects and 
geometricians. Standards of measure are also 
just now a subject of special interest. There 
has come a singular disturbance and doubt on 
the part of legislators and savants as to what 
ought to be the ultimate reference or basis for 
all measures of length. The nations are in- 
quiring, and nobody seems to know on what 
to rest. Tlie French metres are unfortunately 
being urged by many as the most scientific 
known. 

Nearly one hundred years ago the French 
people, in their first revolution, made an attempt 
to abolish alike the Christian religion and the 
hereditary weights and measures of all nations, 
seeking to supplant the former by a worship 
of philosophy and liberty, and the latter by 
a new scheme of metres. For their unit and 
standard of length they took the quadrant of 
the earth's surface at the particular meridian 
of Paris, divided it into ten million parts and 
so obtained the metre of 39.371 inches now 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 59 

SO highly eulogized. To say nothing of the 
origin and motive of such a standard, the 
science that is claimed for it is of no hidi 
character. It has the misfortune of taking a 
curved, line drawn on the earth's surface, and 
that at a particular meridian no • more fitting 
than any other, instead of some straight line 
invariable for all the earth. Besides, in esti- 
mating for the earth's elliptic meridian at Paris 
these atheistic savants^ as now proven, miscalcu- 
lated to the extent of one part in every fiYQ 
thousand three hundred too little, and so on 
their own basis their lauded unit of length is 
not scientifically true. Sir John Herschel 
rightfully pronounces it "the newest and worst 
measure in the world," and Beckett Denison 
justly regards it as an "inconvenient, inaccu- 
rate, and imstridahle measure." What men 
need is a universal standard afforded by nature, 
and serving alike for all mankind. / For such 
a standard M. Callet, in 1795, in his book on 
T.ogarithms, suggested the axis of the earth, 
the even ten millionth to be taken as the 
standard with which to compare all distances 
and lengths. It was a grand thought, far in 
advance of all modern science on the subject. 
The axis of the earth has every philosophic 
and aesthetic reason in its favor as the great 



60 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

terrestrial reference for all our linear measure- 
ments. It is a straight line, the only unvary- 
ing straight line which terrestrial nature 
affords, and the same for all localities and all 
time. It is the base line to which the earth 
itself is framed. And as remarked by Sir 
John Herschel, so long as the human mind 
continues human and retains a power of geom- 
etry, such a line will be held of far superior 
importance to any part or degree of a circum- 
ference. And if any axis is to be chosen on 
which to found a scientific unit, the nature 
of things gives an absolute and indefeasible 
preference to the polar axis. Now this is 
precisely the standard of reference for linear 
measure which the Great Pyramid places be- 
fore us. 

The polar diameter of the earth, according 
to the best science, is 500,500,000 of our inches, 
within so small a. limit of possible error as to 
make but little difference in so multitudinous 
a subdivision. The British ordnance survey 
gives the results of two methods of computa- 
tion, one of which makes it 500,428,296, and 
the other 500,522,904 of our inches, the for- 
mer being considered as having the prepon- 
derance in weight. The mean of the two 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 61 

would therefore be close about five hundred 
millions five hundred thousand of our inches ; 
and this is what Beckett Denison in his As- 
tronomy gives as the result of the most reliable 
modern calculations. 

Takinar the even five hundred millionth 
part of this, we would have 1.001 of our 
inches. Suppose, then, that we free this even 
division of the earth's polar diameter from 
all fractions, and call the five hundred mil- 
lionth part of that axis one inch. We would 
thus have a low and convenient unit of length, 
about half a fine hair's breadth longer than 
our present inch. So complete and even a 
deduction from the polar axis of the whole 
earth would certainly be the grandest, the 
most rational, and the most natural standard 
of length to be found in or on our globe. 
Twenty-five of these inches, that is, 25.025 of 
our inches, would then serve for a cubit or 
longer standard, evenly deduced, which, multi- 
plied by 10^5 would tell the exact distance from 
the centre of the earth to either pole. It 
would be the ten millionth part of the semi- 
axis of the globe we inhabit. And what is 
more, it would be the exact sacred cuhit which 
God himself gave to His people of old, and 



62 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

by which He directed all the sacred construc- 
tions and their appurtenances to be formed.* 

And these sublime earth commensuratina: 
standards of length are precisely the ones set 
forth in the Great Pyramid. Whether the 
practical working measure was in general the 
Egypto-Babylonian cubit of about twenty to 
twenty-one of our inches or any other makes 
no difference. The evidences are clear that a 
cuhit of 25.025 of our inches, or one within a 
very slight fraction of that length, and an inch 
which is the five hundred millionth part of * 
the earth's polar diameter, were in the minds 
of the architects, and meant by them to be 
most significantly emphasized. 

* Some have doubted whether the Jews, either before or after 
the Exodus, ever had a special cubit of this kind. But that 
-they had, and that the same was a Divinely given and author- 
ized length measure, is so clearly deducible from the Scriptures 
and the Jewish writings in general that there ought to be no 
question about it. Sir Isaac Newton, in his " Dissertation on 
Cubits," has brought this out so conclusively as to leave but little 
else to be desired. By five successive methods he also deduces 
the limit of its length as in no case less than 23.3 or more than 
27.9 of our inches. The mean of all his numbers amounts to 
25.07 of our inches, with a possible error on the one side or the 
other of one-tenth of an inch. That the Hebrews, then, had a 
peculiar and sacred cubit wholly separate from all other cubits, 
and that it was the even ten millionth part of the semi-axis of 
the earth, wo may accept and hold on the authority of one of 
the greatest minds and one of the most thorough and com- 
petent investigators of such a matter that has illuminated our 
modern times. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 63 

It is a noble and fitting thought that as the 
existence of an axis of rotation in the earth 
makes the days, the grand standard of length 
founded on that axis should count them. And 
so it is in the Great Pyramid. This nature- 
derived cubit is contained in each side of this 
edifice just as many times as there are days in 
a year ! This simple fact is of itself an in- 
vincible demonstration that these builders had 
such a length in mind as their greatest and 
most sacred standard and enumerator of linear 
measure. But it is also specially singled out 
and recorded elsewhere in the edifice. It is 
the top width of the grand niche in the Queen's 
Chamber, and the distance between the highest 
inner edge of that niche and the vertical centre 
of the chamber. It is thus set before the eye 
as if to teach all to note its existence and to 
search for its hidden use and meaning in the 
symbolizations. 

As to the inch or the one-twenty -fifth of this 
measure, being an integer of the grand day 
counter, it, too, is indicated in the right place 
and in the right way. It is contained sepa- 
rately and independently in the entire perimeter 
of the Grand Pyramid's base, just one hundred 
times for eaph day of the year. As the low 
unit of count in measure, it is also the repre- 



64 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

sentative of a year in the reckoning of the 
passage floor-lines as charts of history, as also 
in the diagonals of the pyramid's base taken 
as a measure of the precessional cycle. It is 
likewise specially exhibited in connection with 
the cubit in the singular boss of the suspended 
"granite leaf" in the anteroom to the King's 
Chamber.* Besides, when multiplied by 10^^* 
it serves to tell in round decimals the dis- 
tance through space which the earth travels 
in each complete revolution on its axis, that is 
100,000,000,000 inches. 

A standard of length measure is thus exhib- 
ited which fits with grand evenness to nature 
in her great facts, but no less beautifully with 
what is common and homely. We used to be 
taught that the inch is made up of so many 

* Captain Tracy has pointed out that the pyramid's earth- 
commensurated cubit is exhibited on this boss of the granite leaf 
divided into fives, for it is just one-fifth of that cubit broad, 
and the thickness of the boss is again just one-fifth of its width. 
We thus have the earth-commensurated iwc/i and cw&i^exhibited 
together, five times five of the one constituting the other. This 
6o6's again is just one of these inches aside from the centre of 
the block on which it is, and the distance from its centre to the 
eastern end of that block in its groove is just one cubit of twenty- 
five of these inches. Eev. Glover re-examined the measures of 
this boss in 1874 and says : " I find it most fairly confirmatory of 
the entire of the sacred cubit and its divisions, giving the inch 
elevation and the five-inch span with an inch base for the side 
slope ; on the boss itself there is no indication whatever of any 
irregularity of shape." — Casey's " Philitis," p. 40. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 65 

barleycorns. That reference, I believe, has 
been expunged from our arithmetic tables, 
because our mathematicians have lost the 
knowledge and meaning of our hereditary 
unit of length. But such is the fact, which 
any one can test for himself, that if we start 
w4th the average length of the grains from 
which man gets his bread, or with the average 
breadth of a man's thumb, length of arm, or 
reach of step in easy walking, everything 
comes out closely even with these earth com- 
mensurated and Divinely approved standards 
of length, and with these alone. 

Weight and Capacity Measure. 

And as these great old architects measured 
the earth, so they aho weigJied it. As nearly 
as can be computed, their pyramid is the even 
one thousand billionth part of the weight of 
this whole earth-ball of land and sea. The 
gravity of the entire mass of what they built 
needs only to be multiplied by 10^^^ to indicate 
the sum of the gravity of the entire mass of 
the globe we inhabit. 

There has been much effort expended by 
modern science to find out the mean density 
or specific gravity of the earth, without exactly 
settling the problem. The best experiments 



6Q 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 



make it between 5.316 and 6.565 times the 
weight of water at the medium temperature of 
68° Fahrenheit. The Great Pyramid makes 
it 5.70, which is almost exactly the mean of 
the best five experiments ever made."^ 

A further memorial of the same is furnished 
in the Coffer of the King's Chamber, in whose 
structure the same n proportions of the pyra- 
mid itself reappear in another form. The 

* These experiments as given in " Johnson's !N"ew Universal 
Cyclopaedia" (Art. Density of the Earth), are the following: 

Colonel James's Observations with Arthur's Seat, . 5.316 

Prof. Airy's Mine Experiments, .... 6.565 

Cavendish Leaden Globe Experiment, . . . 5.480 

Eeich's Experiments, ... . . . . 5.488 

Baily's Experiments, 5 660 



Mean of all the results. 
Difference from pyramid, 



5.672 
.028 



5.700 



Pyramid expression, . 

It thus appears that , the pyramid's figure for the earth's 
density is much nearer to the mean of the experiments than the 
experiments are to each other. ^ 

Computing the earth's bulk at a mean gravity 5.7 times that 
of water, according to the calculation made by Mr. Wm. 
Petrie, of London, the figures stand thus : 

Pyramid's mass in tons, 5,272,600. 
Earth's mass in tons, 5,271 ,900,000,000,000,000,000. 
• The accurate calculation of such immense masses of matter 
must necessarily be very rough ; but the results come out evenly 
enough to show that 5.70 is the proper figure for the pyramidic 
estimate of the mean density of the earth, and that the pj^ra- 
mid was meant to be of such weight that it should be to the 
whole weight of the earth as 1 to lO^^^^ 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 67 

internal capacity of that Coffer by the nicest 
possible coraputations is seventy-one thousand 
two hundred and fifty cubic pyramid or 
earth-commensurated inches. The only in- 
telligible reason for that particular capacity 
is to be found in the combination of a capacity 
and weight measure standard, havino: reference 
to the size and gravity of the earth, with 
that gravity computed at 5.7. Even the long- 
unobserved little irregularities of that Coffer 
come in as a necessary modifying element to 
meet precisely the earth reference formula. 
On the pyramid system o^ fives, 50^ earth-com- 
mensurated inches multiplied by the earth's 
specific gravity and divided by 10, represent 
with close exactness the Coffer's interior space. 
To the reality of these earth references at 
the valuations given, this Coffer comes in as a 
seal, and at the same time furnishes a grand 
standard of united weight and capacity meas- 
ure. At the rate of 5.7 for the mean density 
of the earth, the Coffer's contents of water at 
68° Fahrenheit w^ould be equal to twelve 
thousand ^yq hundred cubic inches of the 
body of the earth. Dividing this into two 
thousand ^we hundred equal parts for a small 
fraction in the dominant pyramid number we 
have an even result equal to five cubic inches 



68 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

of the earth's mean density, which would be 
the pyramid or earth-commensarated pound, 
which is, within a small fraction, the same as 
our common avoirdupois pounds equal in weight 
to a pint, 5 X 5.7 cubic inches of water at a 
temperature of 68° Fahrenheit. 

The Coffer and the Ark of the Coyenant. 

The only article of furniture in all the Great 
Pyramid is this Coffer in the King's Chamber. 
Al Mamoun found it a lid less, empty box, cut 
from a solid block of red granite, and polished 
within and without. In shape it is an ob- 
long rectangular trough, without inscription 
or ornament, and of such size that it could not 
possibly have been taken in or out of its place 
since the pyramid was built. Its proportions 
are all geometrical. Its sides and bottom are 
cubically identical with its internal space. 
The lenG:th of its two sides to its hei2:ht is as 
a circle to its diameter. Its exterior- volume 
is just twice the dimensions of its bottom, and 
its whole measure is just the fiftieth part of 
the size of the chamber in which it stands. Its 
internal space is just four times the measure 
of an English " quarter " of wheat. By its 
contents measure it also confirms Sir Isaac 
Newton's determination of the length of the 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 69 

sacred cubit of twenty-five earth-commensu- 
rated inches. The holy Ark of the Tabernacle 
and the Temple, according to the Scriptures, 
was two and a half cubits long, and one and 
a half broad and high. This must be outside 
measure, as the records speak o^liekjlit and not 
of depth. With twenty-five earth-commensu- 
rated inches to a cubit, and allowing 1.8 of 
these inches for the thickness of the boards, 
its internal space would be seventy-one thou- 
sand two hundred and eighty-two of the same 
cubic inches, or within thirty-two of the num- 
ber of such cubic inches in the capacity meas- 
ure of the pyramid Coffer. Or allowing 1.75 
inches for the thickness of the sides and ends 
and two inches for the bottom, the inner cubical 
contents would be seventy-one thousand two 
hundred and thirteen inches, or within thirty- 
seven of the Goffer. The mean of these two 
estimates, which must include all reasonable 
suppositions for the carpentry of the ark, 
would be seventy-one thousand two hundred 
and foTty-eight cubic inches, which is within 
two inches of the best computation of the in- 
ternal dimensions of the pyramid Coffer. That 
they should be thus alike in internal measure, 
the dimensions of the one having been speci- 
ally laid down by God himself, is very remark- 



70 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

able, and that the two should thus mutually 
sustain each other in the recognition of one and 
the same earth-commensurated cubit, is both 
striking and significant. Nay, using this same 
earth-commensurated cubit as identical with 
the sacred cubit, the further result appears 
that the Jewish laver and the Ark of the 
Tabernacle were the same in capacity measure 
with the pyramid's Coffer, and that Solomon's 
molten sea was just fifty times the capacity 
of either of these and exactly equal in interior 
cubic space with the King's Chamber itself. 

Temperature. 

As the Great Pyramid stands on the line 
which equally divides the surface of the north- 
eim hemisphere, there is at once a close 
approach of its climate to the mean tempera- 
ture of all the earth's surface, at least of every 
habitable land and navigable sea. According 
to the French savants^ by observations both in 
and outside of the Great Pyramid, that tem- 
perature is about 68° Fahrenheit. A permanent 
and unvarying record of this temperature is 
maintained in the pyramid's granite chamber, 
which is so buried in masonry as not to be 
affected by external changes, and furnished with 
a system of ventilating tubes to keep every- 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 71 

thing exactly normal within. This degree of 
temperature is exactly one-fifth of the distance 
which mercury rises in the tube between the 
freezing and boiling-points of water, and fur- 
nishes the basis for a complete nature-adjusted 
pja^amid system of thermal measure. Dividing 
this one-fifth by the standard of Mty (the 
room in which the index of temperature is 
arranged being the chamber of fifty), we have 
the even two hundred and ^fty for the degrees 
between the two notable points of nature 
marked by the freezing and boiling of common 
water. Multiplying this by four, say the 
pyramid's four sides, we are brought to another 
great natural heat-mark, namely, that at 
which heat begins to give forth light, and iron, 
the commonest of metals, becomes red. Then 
multiplying again by five, say by the number 
of the pyramid's ^ve corners, the result comes 
out evenly at another grand nature-marked 
point of thermal measure, namely, that at 
which heat shows whiteness, and platinum, the 
densest and most refractory of metals, melts. 

A Meteoeological Monument. 

Thus the Great Pyramid proves itself abun- 
dantly competent to determine on a natural 
and most scientific basis all measures of length. 



72 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

weight, capacity, and heat. Even the degrees 
in the circle if arranged on the pyramid num- 
bers, say one thousand degrees instead of the 
fractional Babylonian three hundred and sixty, 
some think, would be vastly more natural and 
easy than it is. This would divide the quad- 
rant into the convenient two hundred and fifty 
with even tenths for minutes and seconds, 
whilst it would at the same time harmoniouslv 
comuiensurate with navigation and itinerary 
measures of knots and miles, into which it is 
now so troublesome to translate from the indi- 
cations of the sextant. 

There would seem, therefore, to be nothing 
wanting in this mighty monument of hoar 
antiquity for the formation of a metrical 
system the most universal in its scope, the 
most scientifically founded in its standards, the 
most happily interrelated, and the most easy 
in its com.mon use that ever was presented to 
the contemplation of man or that can be em- 
ployed for our earth purposes: And it is 
devoutly to be wished, if the present agitation 
of the human mind with regard to standards 
and systems of measure is to result in any 
changes for the nations, that they should be in 
the line of what Providence has thus set before 
mankind. Great Britain, the United States, 



A MIEACLE IN STONE. 73 



the German Empire, the Scandinavian King- 
doms, and other principalities and countries, 
have this system already almost exact in some 
departments, descended to them they know 
not from whence, and the correction of what 
is fiulty would be attended with infinitely less 
discomfort than the introduction of French 
metres, conceived in rebellion against the 
common faith and order of the Christian world. 
We would then have the high consciousness of 
possessing a system of metrology the most 
ancient and the most self-consistent in the 
world, and one in most profound accord with 
nature as God made it, if not communicated 
by the great God of nature by direct inspira- 
tion from His eternal wisdom.* 

* We subjoin a table of units and standards of tbis system 
the better to set it before the eyes and understandings of those 
disposed to investigate its elements. 

I. Linear Measure. The grand standard for this is the 
earth's axis of rotation, the sacred cubit of Noah, Moses, Solo- 
mon, and the Great Pyramid, the shortest distance from the 
centre of the earth to either pole divided by 10''' equal to twenty- 
five thousand and twenty-five of our inches. The table would 
then run as follows : 

3 barleycorns = 1 inch or thumb-breadth. 
25 inches = 1 cubit, arm-length, or pace. 

100 cubits = 1 acre side. 

25 acre sides = 1 mile. 

4 miles = 1 league. 

II. Weight and Capacity Measure. The grand stand- 
ard for this is the mean density of the earth at 5.70 times the 



74 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 



The Pyramid's Astronomy. 

Nor are we any less impressed with the 
singular wonderfulness of this ancient pillar, 
when we come to look more directly at its 
astronomy. 

Figuring the framework of the earth as a 
triangle formed from a line of diameter, and 
referrinsf to an axis for a basis for this triamile 
as well as a grand standard of measure, and 
that triangle being greater in vertical height by 

weight of water at G8° Fahrenheit, weighing five cubic inches 
to the pound, which is 1.028 of the pound avoirdupois, or 
1.0-JO old French " poids de marc," or one pint, 5 x 5.70 cubic 
inches of water 68° Fahrenheit (50° pyramid), barometrical 
pressure thirty inches of preceding table, dividing down- 
ward by ten and twenty for ounces, drachms, and grains, and 
multiplying upwards by ten for a stone, ten again for hundred- 
weight, then by five for a quarts, and then by four for the ton, 
and the same for gallons, bushels, quarters, and chaldrons. 
The interrelations would then be : 

1 drop of water = 1 grain. 

1 pint = 1 pound. 

1 bushel = 1 hundredweight. 

1 chaldron = 1 ton. 

III. Thermal Measure. The grand standard for this is 
the mean temperature of the earth in which man works with 
most ease and comfort, 68° Fahrenheit, 20° Centigrade. 

0, zero the freezing-point of water. 
50, the boiling-point of water. 
200, the point at which heat reddens iron. 
lOOO, white heat at which platinum melts. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 75 

duplication than would equal the width of its 
base, the earth is necessarily contemplated as 
a spheroid — a globe thicker at the equator 
than at the poles — ^just as all correct astronomy 
now represents it. Modern science ascribes 
the discovery of this spherity of the earth to 
Thales, six hundred years before Christ ; but 
here it is more perfectly represented than 
Thales ever knew, more than fifteen hundred 
years before Thales was born. 

A fixed axis would also seem to imply the 
idea of rotatory motion. And the making of 
the sides of the pyramid to record an even 
fraction of the earth's axis of rotation just as 
many times a^ there are days in the year, 
proves^ that these builders had an idea of both 
motions of the earth, and a knowledge of the 
number of times it revolves on its own axis 
in making its annual revolution around the 
sun. This latter motion they also further 
symbolized by the inches or fractions of twenty- 
five in their great standard of length, just one 
hundred of which to a day, for the number of 
days in the year, are contained in the perimeter 
of the pyramid's base. If any one within 
historic times prior to Copernicus and Galileo 
really understood this feature of our globe, it 
certainly was not well known nor much be- 



76 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

lieved till after these men had lived ; and yet, 
here it is distinctly and truly symbolized more 
than thirty-five hundred years before their 
time. 

These ancient architects also knew where to 
find the poles of the earth, since they were 
able to determine latitude and what de2:ree of 
latitude marks the half-way of the world's 
surface between the equator and the poles. 
This they prove to us by having built their 
pyramid on that line of latitude, namely, on 
the thirtieth north. It is, in fact, a slight 
fraction south of that line as now estimated, 
but obviously intended to indicate that degree, 
since they built as closely to the northern 
brink of the hill as it was possible to go and 
yet secure a permanent foundation for their 
work. Nor is it much further from that line 
than the ranges of probable error in the best 
scientific calculations. By three distinct pro- 
cesses (by differences of zenith distance, by 
absolute zenith distances, and by transits in 
prime verticle) lately made to determine pre- 
cisely the latitude of Mt. Agamenticus Station 
in Maine, each differed from the others, and 
the determination could not be made any 
nearer than somewhere within the fourth of 
a hundred parts of a second. This was close 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 77 

enough for all practical purposes, but shows 
that the best science cannot be precisely exact 
on the subject. And yet, here we have a 
determination made more than four thousand 
years ago, in fact almost within the limit of 
error of the best scientific possibilities, and 
with the plain intimation of a better knowledge 
which had to be sacrificed to the requirements 
for a fitting basis to a building intended to last 
to the end of time. 

These men have thus left us the memorial 
of a remarkable geodesy, which is further ex- 
hibited in the fact that they not only put their 
pillar in the very centre of Egypt, but on the 
pivotal balance-point of the entire land dis- 
tribution over the face of the whole earth. A 
glance at any universal map makes this appar- 
ent, whilst we look in vain for another point 
on all the globe which so naturally and evenly 
marks the centre of equation for all inhabited 
land surface. There is here a measurement 
or consciousness of the extent and proportional 
relations and distribution of the earth's con- 
tinents and islands, such as modern science has 
not yet furnished or even attempted to give. 

There is perhaps no much better test of a 
sound, practical astronomy, than to be able to 
determine truly the four cardinal points. A 

4* 



78 A MIRACLE IN STONjE. 

very simple and easy thing most persons would 
think it, but not so easy when brought to the 
test. The compass alone never can be depended 
on, except in a general way. The attempts of 
men to orient truly, even with the aid of sci- 
ence, have shown constant inaccuracy. It used 
to be thought a great matter to have churches 
and cathedrals built exactly east and west; but 
of all so intended scarcely one has been found 
that does not incline either to the north or the 
south of the line meant to be followed. It is the 
same even with buildings erected specially 
for astronomical purpose. Tycho Brahe's cele- 
brated Uranibourg observatory is faulty in 
orientation to five minutes of a degree. The 
Greeks in the height of their glory could not 
find the cardinal points astronomically within 
eia:ht decrees. But the builders of the Great 
Pyramid, out in the Lybian desert, with no 
guide or landmark but the naked stars, were 
able to orient their structure so exactly that 
the science of the wisest Athenian sages, eigh- 
teen hundred years afterwards, was seventy 
limes, and the observatory of Uranibourg 
nearly four times, further out of the way than 
it is. 

One of the most curious and important 
problems of astronomy is the sun distance, at 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 79 

which men have labored so long and so ear- 
nestly without being able to solve it closer 
than within a limit of error embracing a 
million and a half of miles. That distance, 
however, is emphatically and definitely pro- 
nounced in the Great Pyramid^ by its 10 and 9 
of practical erection, as the even 10^ times its 
own height, which is about the mean between 
the highest and lowest figures which the most 
recent observations have set down as the best 
results science has reached on this point. 

The Pyramid's Chronology. 

Time reckonings belong to the same subject. 
Things can have no place or being without' 
time. And as measures of time are mere no- 
tations of motions in the clockwork of the uni- 
verse, chronology and astronomy necessarily 
go together. And as the Great Pyramid me- 
morializes the one, the other must also be 
embraced. Memorializing the revolutions of 
the earth on its own axis and around the sun, 
it thus at the same time fixes its notation of 
days and the year. 

But there is another observable movement 
goiiig on in the universe of a much grander 
and wider range, and of special importance 
with regard to chronology. It forms a sacred 



80 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

clock, whose face is the sky, and from which 
we may read backwards or forwards for thou- 
sands on thousands of years without the 
possibility of confusion, the same as w^e read 
the hours and minutes on a timepiece. It is 
what astronomers call " the precession of the 
equinoxes." 

There is a twofold year, one called the 
siderial year, or year of the stars, and the other 
the year of the sun or seasons, the equinoctial 
year. The former is a fraction longer than 
the latter. That is to say, the equinoxes in 
our ordinary practical year come a little earlier 
every time than the siderial time. This prece- 
dence in the equinoctial presentations amounts 
to about fifty seconds each year, and is henct 
called the precession of the equinoxes. It is 
really a retardation in the time of the rising 
and setting of the stars, by which they come 
about fifty seconds later every year. It was 
Hipparchus, about one hundred and fifty years 
before Christ, who first noted this within his- 
toric times; and since his day the rising and 
setting of the stars, as compared with the 
equinoctial or common year, has fallen back 
about thirty degrees from what their time then 
was. At this rate of retardation it takes about 
nine and a half millions of our days or about 



A MIEACLE IN STONE. 81 

twenty-five thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
eight of our years for this rising and setting 
to come back again to the exact point at which 
we begin the calculation. We thus have a 
great astronomical cycle, less than a fourth of 
which has passed since man was placed upon 
the earth. It furnishes a singularly valuable 
nieans of noting and determining remote dates. 
Know'ing the relative places of the stars which 
most plainly mark this cycle, we can tell 
exactly how they stood in any year or date 
since time began ; and knowing how they 
stood at the time of any given event, we can 
thus calculate the precise year almost to the 
day and hour in which that event took place. 
Now if the Great Pyramid was meant to 
give us a symbolization of the physical uni- 
verse, this grand year could not be overlooked, 
though science has been so long in finding it 
out. Nor has it been overlooked. It is all 
here plainly enough to be traced, just at the 
place and in the forms which we might expect. 
It is the greatest of nature's time-cycles, and 
its years would naturally be signified in the 
pyramid's lowest units of measure in the long- 
est lines within the circle of its perimeter on 
which we read the days and years. The two 
diagonals of the Great Pyramid's base, taken 



82 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

together, measure just as many inclies as this 
cycle has years.* 

It has only been since the times of Tycho 
Brahe that astronomers began to have any 
assurance in determining the length of this 
period. The latest and closest calculations by 
Bessel make it twenty-five thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-eight years, which is the 
sum of inches in the diagonal measures of this 
pyramid's base, more accurately given than it 
was known when Newton and Hutton wrote. 
It has been thought to weaken the idea of 
intention on the part of the architects thus to 
symbolize this cycle, since the measure of the 
diagonals is necessarily resultant from the 
lengths of the sides. But this interdepend- 
ence of the diagonals and square in the 
pyramid's count of days, years, and the grand 
cycle of years, only proves that God has so 
constituted the motions of the heavenly bodies 
that a correct symbolization of one true count 
of nature involves the other, and that the 

* A singular coincidence with this has been pointed out by K. 
A. Procter. If we take the pyramid's cubits instead of its 
inches, and multiply the number of these cubits in a base side 
of the pyramid by the number fifty, and increase the result in 
proportion as the base diagonal exceeds the measure of the side, 
the sum comes out in the number of years in the great preces- 
sional period. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 83 

mind which governed in the framing of the 
symbol was conscious of the fact. 

It is by means of this cycle, in connection 
with its star-pointings, that the Great Pyramid 
also tells the date of its erection. Sir John 
Herschel in 1839, assuming that its long, nar- 
row, polished tubular entrance passage was 
meant to be levelled at a polar star, began to cal- 
culate back with what data he had to find the 
time when such a star was looking down that 
tube from the northern heavens. Nor did he 
fail to find one answering the conditions near 
about the time assigned by other methods as 
the probable date at which the Great Pyramid 
was built. Closer determinations of the exact 
pointings of the grand tube, along with other 
data, enabled other astronomers to repeat the 
calculation with more determinate results, 
fixing upon the year two thousand one hundred 
and seventy before Christ, as that in which 
this tube pointed to « Draconis, the then pole 
star, at its lower culmination, at the same time 
that the Pleiades, particularly Alcyone, the 
centre of the group, were on the same meridian 
above. And as this was a mark in the heavens 
w^hich could not occur again for more than 
twenty-five thousand years from that time, 
and was itself very extraordinary, it has been 



84 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

accepted as meant to be the sign of the date 
of the building of the Great Pyramid. 

But what is thus astronomically made oqt 
is surprisingly corroborated in another way. 
These low tubular passage-ways prove them- 
selves to be time charts also. They symbolize 
scrolls of human history as well as point out 
stars, and the notations in the one answer 
exactly to the other. The inch as a unit for 
a year also appears in these avenues. The 
entrance tube begins a record with the disper- 
sion after the flood, and dates from the 
formation of nations. The history is a down- 
ward one under a dragon star toward a 
bottomless pit. Following this decline for 
about one thousand inches, which denote years, 
we reach the first upward passage. At that 
date the children of Israel, by special inter- 
position of God, began their national economy 
and history. Following this ascending passage 
fifteen hundred and forty-two inches, the 
number of years from the Exodus of Israel to 
the birth of Christ, the last inch brings us to 
the beginning of the Grand Gallery, which 
sublimely symbolizes our Christian dispensa- 
tion. Counting back, then, from the beginning 
of this gallery, that is, from the birth of Christ, 
1542 inches to the entrance passage, and then 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 85 

Up the entrance passage 628 inches more 
(1542 + 628 making 2170, the astronomical 
date of the pyramid's building) , at the precise 
point we find a distinct and beautifully cut 
line ruled into the stone sides of the passage 
from top to bottom, put there by the builders 
of the edifice.* 

And that these lines were meant to mark 
the time of the Great Pyramid's erection, the 
indication is distinctly given. The joinings 
of the stones of which the sides of this pas- 
sage are built are all at right angles with its in- 
cline, except in two instances. The exceptions 
are the first two joints preceding these lines. 

■^ The existence of these lines, as first reported by Prof. Smyth, 
has now been amply verified. Rev. F. R. A. Glover, on his 
way to India, in 1874, visited the Great Pyramid with some 
four or five others, and subsequently wrote from Cairo, under 
date of November 12th, " One of our party having quoted the 
opinion expressed by Sir Nelson Pycroft, ' that the story of 
these lines was all bosh,' I took care to let the party have oc- 
ular demonstration of their existence, and thus see the folly of 
the honorable baronet in declaring that ' these lines were not 
there, whatever Prof. Smyth or anybody else had said.' When 
I had showed the young gentlemen above named that the lines 
were there, I said to them, * "Now you see that however diffi- 
cult it may be to distinguish them by superficial observers, the 
lijies are there, and I shall ask you to confess now, and at all 
other times, that you have seen them.^ To this they gladly con- 
sented ; and so this story and this verification of the reality of 
the lines will be repeated as often as I shall be called on tospeak 
of the matter." — Given in Casey's " Philitis," pp. 40, 41. 



86 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

These, instead of beins: at ri^lit andes with 
the passage, are vertical^ a figure of speech in 
stone phiinly indicative of lifting up or build- 
ino-. And immediately after this si2:nifvini>' of 
the process of erection, comes these thin, line, 
and beautiful lines, just two thousand one hun- 
dred and seventy inches from the beginning 
of the Grand Gallery, which, as the beginning 
of our dispensation would be the time of 
Chrisf s birth. 

Thus, then, by a double method, each equally 
verifiable and distinct, and the one answering 
exactly to the other, the Great Pvramid tells 
its own age in time-marks as unmistakable as 
they are true to the mysteries of the sky and 
to the succession of events and dispensations 
on the earth. 

And in the same way this remarkable pillar 
seems also to indicate the true date of the 
flood. If we count back from the date of its 
erection six hundred and thirty years, and 
inquire into the star-markings with regard to 
the precessional cycle at that period, we find 
the same pole star a Draconis looking down 
that same entrance passage as at the time of 
the building, but then Aquarius, the waternum, 
instead of the Pleiades is on the meridian above, 
the line crossing the very mouth of the vessel 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 87 

whence the mighty stream is issuing. This 
could hardly have been without the knowledge 
of the designer of this edifice, and presents a 
very grand and remarkable time-mark. Can 
any one fail to have suggested to him what it 
indicates? All nations have preserved the 
tradition of it. The Scriptures refer to it 
again and again in the Old Testament and in 
the New. And the names and pictures of the 
constellations, as they still stand in our alma- 
nacs, unalterably point back to it. It is the 
great deluge of Noah's time, which the Great 
Pyramid thus locates chronologically at a point 
within a few years of the mean of the dates 
given for that event in the two different ver- 
sions of the Scriptures, the Hebrew and the 
Septuagint, to wit, two thousand eight hun- 
dred years before Christ, and six hundred and 
thirty years before the building of the pyra- 
mid itself 

Septenaries and Sabbaths. 

But time reckonings .demand some special 
system of smaller fractions which cannot be 
made by mere decades, tens, or hundreds. The 
year and the day are such distinct and em- 
phatic -units of nature that man is compelled 
to observe them in his notations, and they will 



88 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

not subdivide or multiply into each other bj 
even decimals. The French savants tried it, 
but utterly failed, and after all their efforts 
were compelled to fall back upon the old week 
of seven days, which God himself ordained 
from the beginning of the world as the easiest 
and most practical system of ordinary time 
commensuration. We would therefore expect 
the Great Pyramid as a great symbol of nature 
to have some reference to this also. And in 
spite of its intense fiveness, it does not fail to 
present this easier and sacredly approved di- 
vision of days into weeks of sevens. Having 
made so grand a reference to the Pleiades, or 
the seven stars, the elemental grouping of 
sevens at once comes in. Hence, the Grand 
Gallery is seven times the average height of 
the other passages, and its sides are built of 
seven overlapping stone courses on either side. 
So the passage which leads under it to the so- 
called Queen's Chamber has a section distinctly 
though differently marked off at its ends, 
either of wdiich is the one-seventh of that 
-passage's entire length. A septenary system 
is thus recognized and indicated. 

But it is not simply septenary, but likewise 
sahhatic, at least as respects the Queen's Cham- 
ber and the way to it. There is a seventh 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 89 

marked off from the six, and specially empha- 
sized. The last seventh of the horizontal way 
to that chamber is deeply indented in the floor, 
so as to make the passage there about one-third 
higher than anywhere else. This alone would 
be decisive. But the chamber thus approached 
through a sabbatic avenue is itself the culmi- 
nation of a sabbatic system. By reason of its 
peaked and two-sided ceiling it is a seven- 
sided room ; and the amount of cubic space 
thus divided off above the square at the top 
is the high seventh of the cubic space con- 
tained above the distinctly marked base line 
which runs around the room at the heii^ht 
of the passage conducting into it. It is thus 
a completed sabbatism founded on a sabbatism 
in the way by which it is approached. We 
thus have all the features of the Hebrew sab- 
batic system emphatically pronounced and 
most remarkably built into the rocky structure 
of this pyramid more than six hundred years 
before Moses and the giving of the law^, — a 
system of which the Gentiles as such knew 
little or nothing, though practically observed 
by the Creator himself in the great week in 
which the world was made. And by this 
intense sabbatism w^e are doubtless to identify 
this part of the pyramid with the Jew, the 



90 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

same as we identify the Grand Gallery with 
the Christian dispensation. 

The Centre of the Uniyerse. 

But there is a yet grander thought embodied 
in this wonderful structure. Of its five points, 
there is one of special pre-eminence, in which 
all its sides and upward exterior lines termi- 
nate. It is the summit corner, which lifts its 
solemn index-finger to the sun at miSday, and 
by its distance from the base tells the mean 
distance of that sun from the earth. And if 
we go back to the date which the pyramid gives 
itself, and look for what that finger pointed to 
at midnight, we find a far sublimer indication. 

Science has at last discovered that the sun 
is not a dead centre, with planets and comets 
wheeling about it but itself stationary. It is 
now ascertained that the sun also is in motion, 
carrying with it its splendid retinue of comets, 
planets, its satellites and theirs, around some 
other and vastly mightier centre. Astrono- 
mers are not yet fully agreed as to what or where 
that centre is. Some, however, believe that 
they have found the direction of it to be the 
Pleiades, and particularly Alcyone^ the central 
one of the renowned Pleiadic stars. To the 
distinguished German astronomer, Prof J. H. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. , 91 

Maedler, belongs the honor of having made 
this discovery. Alcyone, then, as far as sci- 
ence has been able to perceive, would seem to 
be " the midnight throne " in which the whole 
system of gravitation has its central seat, 
and from which the Almighty governs His 
universe. And here is the wonderful corre- 
sponding fact, that at the date of the Great 
Pyramid's completion, at midnight of the au- 
tumnal equinox, and hence the true beginning 
of the year as still preserved in the traditions 
of many nations, the Pleiades were distributed 
over the meridian of this pyramid, with Al- 
cyone (y Tauri) precisely on the line. 

Here, then, is a pointing of the highest and 
sublimest character that mere human science 
has ever been able so much as to hint, and 
which would seem to breathe an unsuspected 
and mighty meaning into that speech of God 
to Job when He demanded, " Canst thou hind 
the sweet influences of Pleiades f 

Whence this Wisdom? 

Could all these things have been mere coin- 
cidences? Is it possible that they just hap- 
pened so out of blind chance ? Then what is 
the reason that nothing of the sort has hap- 
pened in the scores of other Egyptian pyramids? 



92 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

And if they were really designed by the 
builders, whence then came this surprising 
intelligence, unsurpassed and uncontradictable 
by the best scientific attainments of modern 
man ? 

Shall we credit it all to old Egypt ? We 
find it memorialized in Egypt, but could it have 
been of Egypt? Not far can we go in such an 
inquiry till we find the way impassably choked 
up against any such conclusion. The old 
Egyptians never were a highly scientific peo- 
ple. Bunsen says, " Their astronomy was 
strictly provincial, calculated only for the 
meridian of Egypt ;" and that " the signs of 
the zodiac were wholly unknown to them till 
the reign of Trajan." Brugsch says, " It was 
based on empiricism, and not on that mathe- 
matical science which calculates the movements 
of the stars." Strabo admits that the Egyp- 
tians of his day were destitute of scientific as- 
tronomical knowledge. Ren an asserts, and 
Edward Everett had said before him, that 
*^ Not a reformer, not a great poet, not a great 
artist, not a savant, not a philosopher, is to be 
met with in all their history." Never, there- 
fore, was it in their power to understand, much 
less originate and enunciate, the sublime sci- 
ence found in the Great Pyramid. The other 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 93 

pyramids were of Egypt, but they are to.tally 
wanting in all these elements of intellectaal- 
ity. We look in vain for any traces that the 
old Egyptians ever understood the mathemat- 
ical TT, much less construct so original a symbol 
of it. There is no proof that they ever had 
any appreciation of the pyramid's system of 
numbers, or knew anything of the sun's dis- 
tance or the earth's form or weight. There is 
no sign that they ever used the pyramid inch, 
or the cubit of twenty-five inches, or any 
measure founded on intelligent earth commen- 
suration. There is nothing to show that they 
comprehended the precession al cycle, or ever 
made use of it. They computed by the short 
and confusing Sothic cycle of one thousand 
four hundred and sixty-one years, and mistook 
even that, making it a day in every four 
years shorter than it really is. Their govern- 
ing star was not Alcyone, the happy star of 
celestial tranquillity and peace, but Slriiis^ the 
fiery dogstar, whose rising and setting with 
the sun marks " the dog days,"- — the most 
pestilential days of all the year. It is a bright 
and flaring star, indeed, but of ill omen to the 
northern and more classic peoples — a star 
of which Homer sung as one 

"Whose burning breath 
Taints the red air with fevers, plagues, and death. 



94 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

A star fittingly auspicious of the beast worship 
of the people who regulated their grand cycle 
by it. And when we further consider how 
perfectly clear and pure the Great Pyramid is 
from all marks or traces of old Egypt's super- 
abounding idolatry, which " changed the glory 
of the uncorruptible God into an image made 
like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four- 
footed beasts, and creeping things," defiling 
every object with this base harlotry of the 
human soul; it becomes utterly impossible to 
believe that this grand pillar, with its still 
grander scientific embodiments, could ever 
have sprung from Egypt, though " all the 
wisdom of the Egyptians " had been concen- 
trated to produce it. Many pyramids did 
Egypt build before the costly fashion went out 
of vogue ; but even with the great original 
before them, there was not genius and obser- 
vation enough in all the land to make so much 
as a correct copy of it. Of all the enormous 
mounds of brick or stone which Egypt itself 
set up, there is not one to tell of aught but 
vaulting ambition and blundering imitation. 
From the least unto the greatest there is 
neither science nor sense in any of them. 
How then could Egypt have originated this 
great science-laden forerunner of them all ? 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 95 

Whence then came this wisdom ? Some 
direct us to Babylon as the fountain-head of 
science and astronomy. And the Chaldasans 
were, indeed, great builders and astrologers. 
They worshipped the heavenly bodies. Among 
them, if among any of the nations, may we 
best hope to find the primal treasure-house of 
the knowledge we have been deciphering, if 
it be at all of earth. To the planet temple of 
Nebo, at Borsippa, are we above all directed 
as the best memorial they have left us. But 
the Borsippa temple comes seventeen hundred 
years after the Great Pyramid, and yet sinks 
into insignificance beside it. Its orientation 
has been specially lauded as strikingly scien- 
tific for that remote age, and yet its builders 
missed it by six degrees ! And so lopsided 
was that construction according to the best 
reproductions of its plan, — its surface so broken 
with corners of terraces, panelled walls, 
priests' dwellings, and flights of steps, that its 
warmest admirers do not pretend to find any- 
thing scientific in its form or shape. It was 
dedicated to the planets, and proposed to enu- 
merate them in its diverse colored stages, and 
yet it knew nothing of Uranus, Neptune, or 
the planetoids, and counted in the earth's 
moon as one ! With such an astronomy the 



96 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

Great Pyramid could not possibly have been 
made what it is. There is, indeed, a system 
of Babylonian metres which has penetrated 
more or less into all civilized countries, prin- 
cipally through Alexander and the Greeks ; 
but it was a system of sixes and sevens, and not 
of fives and tens. Its cubit was between twenty 
and twenty-one inches, and not the twenty- 
five of the earth-commensurated cubit of the 
Great Pyramid and the sacred cubit of the 
Hebrews. And no more in Babylon's metrol- 
ogy than in Babylon's planet temple is there 
any real science worthy of the name. There 
is measure, but it is meaningless. There is 
grand huildinrj, hut it is only fanciful piling up 
of bricks and stories which tells of nothing 
but the pride and idolatry of the builders and 
their blundering in the plain things of our 
planetary economy, beyond which there is 
nothing. Never from such a source could the 
Great Pyramid have come. 

Whence, then, came this wisdom? Step by 
step we are being driven to the border line of 
the territory of miracle and inspiration. Nor 
do I know how we can honestly help ourselves 
against crossing it for an explanation. Prof 
Proctor has recently undertaken to solve the 
whole matter on very easy human grounds, 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 97 

but the flippancy with which he disposes of 
some of the problems, while taking no account 
whatever of others, shows that, astronomer as 
he is, he has not fully taken in the case. The 
whole thing hears the impress of an intelli- 
gence so high, a wi&dom so unaccountable, and 
a beneficence so genial toward the wants of 
man, that no one yet has even begun to show 
how it can be less than supernatural. And 
yet our presentations have followed but one 
line of inquiry, while there are others of still 
more striking character and importance. I 
have kept myself thus far to the department 
of science alone. But there remain sundry 
other fields full of wonder, on which I have 
not time now to touch. 

Six hundred years had this pyramid been 
^It before Moses began to write the Penta- 
teuch, And what if passages should be found 
scattered through the Scriptures which will 
not intelligibly interpret without it ? Whai 
if all the great doctrines of Revelation, and all 
the great characteristics of the ages, and all 
the mightiest facts in human history and God's 
administrations, should be found imbedded in 
its rocky symbolisms? What if we should 
find it prophesied of as a grand memorial of 
Jehovah, meant to be uncovered and read in 



98 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

these last evil times, in confutation of the de- 
grading philosophies and vain conceits which 
men untaught of God would have us accept 
in place of the word of Revelation ? What 
if we should hear from out its dark and long- 
hidden chambers and avenues just where we 
are in the great calendar of time, what scenes 
are next to be expected in the affairs of our 
world and what unexampled changes presently 
await us ? What if it should turn out to be a 
clear and manifest prophecy of man's constant 
native deterioration, of his redemption by 
miracle, and of his destiny forever, all written 
out beforehand in " the grandeur of immortal 
stone ?" What if it should prove itself an 
earlier and independent duplicate of God's 
volume of inspiration? What majesty and 
consequence would it then assume in the eyes 
of all right-thinking men ! To what a crush- 
ing test would our modern scientists then be 
•brought with their theories of creation with- 
out a God and their doctrines of salvation 
without a Saviour ! 

Nor is it an extravagant anticipation to ex- 
pect even thus much from this wonderful 
pillar. Once admit, as I believe it will yet 
have to be admitted, that superhuman intelli- 
gence is in it, and there is then every reason 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 99 

to count on finding the whole story. God 
never deals in fragments without making them 
symbols of the whole. And I shall be much 
mistaken if it does not turn out, without forc- 
ing of facts or dealing in fancies, that in these 
rocks and their emplacements are treasured 
up from hoar antiquity the whole plan of God 
in grace and miracle as well as in the universe 
of nature. Some other opportunity may be 
afforded for us to enter and survey this field 
and thus penetrate further into this glorious 
mountain of glorious thoughts. 

Meanwhile, ike mighty structure stands im- 
mortal in its greatness, lifting its brow the 
nearest to heaven of all earthly works, and 
asserting in every feature something more 
than human. With all of man's workman- 
ship that went before it in utter ruin, it stands 
only the more readable from the damages of 
time, the grand and indestructible monument 
of the true primeval man. Upon its pedestal 
of rock, battered by the buffetings of forty 
centuries, it stands, upspringing like a tongue 
of fire kindled of God to light the course of 
time down to its final goal and consummation. 



Old Time, himself so old, is like a child, 

And can't remember when these blocks were piled 

Or caverns scooped ; but, with amazed eye, 

He seems to pause, like other standers-by, 

Half thinking how the wonders here made known 

Were born in ages older than his own. 



(100) 



MODERN DISCOVERIES AND BIBLICAL CONNECTIONS. 




T was lately my privilege to present 
some account of the Great Pyramid, 
and of that wonderful scientific 
knowledge embodied in it which 
has induced the belief that a higher wisdom 
than inan's was concerned in its erection. I 
now resume the subject to present still other 
facts tending to the same conclusion. 

A learned and able historical critic and 
lecturer recently stated to his audience in this 
city that what is thus claimed for the Great 
Pyramid may be true, and likely is true. And 
if such is the probability or even the possibil- 
ity, the matter is not only worthy of our ex- 
amination, but it would seem to be our duty 
to test it in every possible field of inquiry. 

The theory is somewhat startling, and al- 
together so new and wonderful that some 
will doubtless be disposed to shrink from it as 
nothing but an extravagant fancy. It ought, 
however, to modify such a feeling when we 
remember that we live in an age of wonders, 

5* . ( 101 ) 



102 A MIRACLE IN STOKE. 

an age which answers well to the ancient 
prophecy of a time bordering on the end, when 
men would become great travellers and ex- 
plorers, and as a consequence the stock of 
human knowledge be remarkably increased. 

Modern Progress and Discoyeries. 

There certainly never was another period 
of such intense running to and fro in the earth 
or of such astounding growth in the range of 
human information as this in which we live. 
Events, inventions, and discoveries the most 
momentous crowd upon each other beyond 
our power to keep pace with them. Their 
multiplicity bewilders and confounds us. The 
whole life, condition, and dwelling-place of 
civilized man is being revolutionized by them. 
We travel now in palaces with every ease and 
luxury, and faster than the winds. We con- 
verse by electricity across oceans and conti- 
nents. We spin, and knit, and weave, and 
print, and even calculate by automatic m?.- 
chinery. We copy nature and record her 
aspects i>y sunbeams. The whole world has 
become one neighborhood. Men have made 
visits to the poles, mapped the currents of the 
sea, belted the earth in every direction with 
lines of railroads and steamers, thrown down 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 103 

the walls which for ages separated between 
nations, brought all types and kindreds of men 
face to face, and rendered a journey around the 
globe a mere summer's recreation. /r?7 

And especially in recoveries from the long- 
forgotten past, in the reconstruction of history 
before the historic periods, and in the bringing 
to light of the wisdom and science of prim- 
eval ages, our times have been extraordinarily 
rich and fruitful. The last quarter of a cen- 
tury has been a very resurrection time in this 
regard. Ages of which we had only the dim- 
mest hintshave been marvellously recalled from 
their oblivion. With the ability to decipher 
hieroglyphics and cuneiform inscriptions, old 
worlds have newly opened to our contempla- 
tion. By the mastery of languages, the tracing 
of them to their primal sources and connec- 
tions, the searching out and bringing together 
of the scattered fragments of antiquity, and 
the exhumation of ancient remains, the oris-i- 
nal migrations of the race have become trace- 
able, and much of their long-lost history has 
been reclaimed. Things hitherto referred to 
the department of myth, fable, and dream, 
have suddenly assumed the character of au- 
thentic traditions. A little while ago, " Erech, 
and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar," 



104 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

and Calah, and Resin of Asshur, and Ellasar, 
and ''Ur of the Chaldees/' were mere names 
in Genesis, with scarce another known trace 
of them ; but the mounds of Mesopotamia 
have yielded up their bricks and stones to 
modern research, and their long-silent tongues 
have been loosed to tell where these places 
stood and what mighty peoples once inhabited 
them. Babylon and Nineveh have thus mi- 
bosomed their records to testify how truly the 
Bible spoke of them and what wealth, lux- 
ury, arrogance, and power once were theirs. 
The names and exploits of their kings, their 
conquests, their religions, their gods, their sci- 
ences, and their styles of life now stand in 
many instances revealed before our eyes. 
Arabia, till lately thought to be a mere desert 
waste, and so marked on the maps, has dis- 
closed grand seats of empire, with civilizations 
once existent there superior even to Greece 
and Rome. Moab's rocks have become vocal 
with attestations of the sacred records. Ba- 
"shan's giant cities, and houses covered with 
stone, and gates and doors of hinged rocks, 
and walls and bars proportioned to their once 
giant occupants, have been visited and their 
ancient wonders verified. Palestine has been 
resurveyed, its old localities identified, and the 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 105 

miracles of its history marvellously authenti- 
cated. Schliemann is uncovering Homeric 
cities and bringing up Homeric heroes and 
the old Homeric civilization out of their Ion"-- 
lost tombs. Even the whole way back through 
prehistoric ages to Nimrod and Noah is being 
laid open and lighted up by modern explora- 
tions. And why should it amaze us that 
from the land of Egypt also,— that land of 
oldest and most numerous monuments, — that 
land where nothing perishes,— that land so 
specially chosen of God as the theatre of his 
most stupendous miracles,— there should also 
be a bursting forth of unsuspected light to 
mingle some superior beams with the general 
illumination ? 

' Egypt's Past„ 

And if perchance these new disclosures 
should be of a character more sacred and im- 
posing than what is being exhumed in other 
lands, it is what we might reasonably antici- 
pate from a country so singularly linked with 
some of the most marvellous Divine adminis- 
trations. It is a type of the world, indeed, 
but in its milder aspect; the darker type is 
Babylon. Even Bunsen tells us that Egypt 
has ever been the instrument for furthering 



106 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

the great designs of Providence. It has been 
at least the principal background of the most 
illustrious displays which have marked the 
career of God's chosen people. Israel could 
not become a nation without Egypt. The 
first and greatest of Israel's prophets was res- 
cued from a watery grave, nurtured, schooled, 
and outwardly fitted for his sublime legation 
by the daughter of Egypt's king. Abraham 
himself, though from quite another section of 
the world, was ministered unto by Egypt. 
Joseph became the illustrious type of Christ 
by connection with Egypt. Humanly speak- 
ing, Jacob and his house would have come to 
a sad end had it not been for Egypt, which 
furnished him with bread, welcomed him to 
its richest lands,^and gave his body a royal 
burial when he died. To Egypt's sovereign 
God sent that double dream of the kine and 
the ears of corn, which proved the means of 
Joseph's exaltation and of the salvation of so 
many peoples. Even when the blessed Jesus 
was born into our world Egypt was his asylum 
from the bloody sword of Herod, and once 
more and most literally of all were those 
words of Jehovah fulfilled, "Out of Egypt 
have I called my son." It was Egypt that 
gave to mankind the first translation of the 



A MIEACLE IN STONE. 107 

Hebrew Scriptures. It was Egypt that proved 
the stronghold of Christianity after Jerusalem 
fell. It is from Egypt that we have the 
noblest and greatest fathers of the Christian 
Church. And however ignoble now may be 
the land or its population, we may rest assured 
that God has something further to accomplish 
by means of a country of which he has thus 
availed himself in the past, and that out of it 
will yet come some of the greatest of sacred 
marvels which are to mark the closing periods 
of time. 

The Great Pyramid's Disclosures, 

Some may doubt with regard to such antici* 
pations ; but they are already being realized 
in the recent revelations of the Great Pyramid. 
For forty centuries enshrouded in the deepest 
mystery, that mighty pillar has at length begun 
to yield up its secrets. As a mere building it 
stands at the head of the world, in age, in 
vastness of dimensions, in perfection of work- 
manship, and in the practical mastery of prob- 
lems too hard for all our boasted modern art 
and machinery. There is not an instance in 
all the vast structure in which its architects 
miscalculated or failed. They built for per- 
manence. They planned their work to sur- 



108 A MIKACLE IN STONE. 

vive all the commotions of nature and all the 
Vandalism of man. Signally, also, have they 
succeeded. Not a stone necessary to its ulter- 
ior purpose has come short of its office. A 
monument has thus come down to us from 
beyond the classic ages which exalts and dig- 
nifies the land in which it stands. It is an 
edifice of stones so wisely chosen, so justly 
prepared, so wonderfully handled, so admir- 
ably joined, and in the proper places so 
exquisitely cut and polished, that it is without 
an equal in any land. It is likewise pervaded 
with the highest intelligence. There is not 
an inch of it which does not speak. Even 
after the lapse of four thousand j^ears of ob- 
servation, study, and experience, there is not 
a nation or people whose wisdom or every-day 
affairs it is not capable of improving. There 
is reason to think that we have not yet reached 
the fulness of its grand symbolizations ; but 
if nothing more should come of the further 
study of it, enough has been ascertained to 
render it the most interesting problem of our 
times. 

The Pyramid and the Prophets. 

It would also seem as if God's inspired 
prophets knew of this marvellous pillar and 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 109 

regarded it as a sacred wonder. The Greeks 
as early as Alexander's time placed it at the 
head of their list of " the seven wonders of 
the world." But Jeremiah before them wrote 
of "" signs and wonders in the land of Egypt," 
and of the placing of them there by " the 
Great, the Mighty God, the Lord of hosts" 
(Jer. 32 : 18-20), which would seem to refer to 
this pyramid. He was in Egypt when he 
made this record.. He went there at the fall 
of Jerusalem that he might write his prophe- 
cies and send them to his captive countrymen 
in Babylon. His method was to fortify his 
testimony by appealing to all the records and 
monuments which Jehovah had made of his 
power and greatness in the earth. He accord- 
ingly refers to '^ signs and wonders in the 
land of Egypt," of which he says that they 
still existed when he wrote,— ^' unto this day." 
He is commonly thought to allude to the mir- 
acles of the Exodus, which certainly were 
" signs and wonders " exactly to his purpose. 
But those are specifically noted in a subse- 
quent verse, and in phraseology better suited 
to them. The language' here suggests some- 
thing monumental, something locally fixed. 
It naturally implies a Divine memorial, con- 
tinuously abiding, and then still to be seen in 



110 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

Egypt. It was something " set ' there. The 
word is the same in Hebrew and in English, 
and with much the same sense in both.* It 
may be metaphorically used with regard to 
miracles, but when used of things continuous 
for hundreds of years after the placing, the 
sense is cramped and strained when applied to 
miracles like those of the Exodus, which dis- 
appeared with the relenting of Pharaoh and 
the departure of Israel. So keenly has this 
been felt that critics have been forced to speak 
of a probable substitution of one word in place 
of another, and men have cast about for some 
remaining physical marks of the Mosaic mir- 
acles in order to satisfy the terms of the record. 
Hence we read in Trapp's Commentary on the 
passage, ^' Orosis writeth that the tracks of 
Pharaoh's chariot-wheels are yet to be seen at 
the Red Sea !" The Great Pyramid on> the 
new hypothesis would nobly help such critics 
and commentators out of the mud, and grandly 
meet the exact phraseology of the prophet. 
Interpreted then by the most cogent laws of 
language we here have a Scriptural recognition 

■^ It is again and again rendered, to make^ to put, to cause to 
he, to order J to appoint, to ordain, to place, to set up, to erect. 
Gesenius gives as its first and main sense, " to set, to place, to 
put, referring to persons or things which stand erect." Vatablus 
translates it bj posuisti, placed, set up, erected, built. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. Ill 

of some enduring monument in Egypt, built 
by God's appointment, and meant to be a wit- 
ness to him. 

Isaiah makes a similar reference of a still 
mt)re circumstantial and positive character. 
In chap. 19 : 19, 20, he prophesies, " In that 
day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the 
midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at 
the border thereof to the Lord, and it shall 
be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord 
of hosts in the land of Egypt." 

This ^' altar " and " pillar " are not two 
things, but one and the same as sundry expos- 
itors have observed. The language is poetical, 
and has the common parallelism of Hebrew 
poetry. Given in the form and sense of the 
original, it would read 

" In that day there is an altar to Jehovah 

In the midst of the land of Egypt ; 
Even a pillar at the border thereof to Jehovah, 
And it shall be for a sign and witness to Jehovah of hosts 

In the land of Egypt." 

Everything in this prophecy seems to look to 
the Great Pyramid. It refers to some specific 
and telling monument, and all its terms most 
fully apply to this marvellous pillar. There is 
nothing else known to which they do apply 
4n literal accuracy and fulness. 



112 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

Note how admirably the titles fit. "Altar" 
in Hebrew means "the lion of God." The 
Great Pyramid is pre-eminently the lion among 
all earthly buildings, and the new theory 
claims that it is Divine. The altar as described 
by Ezekiel is largely pyramidal in form, and 
is called " the mountain of God." And a 
mountain, surely, is the Great Pyramid, and 
one of a very remarkable character. The 
sacred books of the Hindoos call it a moun- 
tain — Rucm-adri — " the golden mountain." It 
is "a pillar," and hence not a sacrificial but 
a memorial altar. It is a mammoth obelisk, — ■ 
one great individual shaft, — and now also 
believed to be sacred. 

The location likewise corresponds. The 
Great Pyramid is the hub or centre of Egypt's 
curved shoreline, and so is " in the midst of 
the land," as nothing else to be thought of 
ever was. Yet it is also " at the border there- 
of." It stands on the extreme southern limit 
of Lower Egypt, and on the natural dividing 
line between the tw^o Egypts, It is thus 
doubly " in the midst " and doubly " at the 
border." 

The time also answ^ers. Six times the note 
is sounded, and in every instance in the usual 
Messianic and eschatological formula — "in 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 113 

that day," — a day which nowhere finally lo- 
cates this side of the period of " the restitution 
of all things." Whatever else the prediction 
may cover, it cannot therefore be considered 
exhausted yet, and necessarily brings us down 
to the times bordering on the end. By per- 
mission of Ptolemy Philometor, certain Jews 
built a quasi temple and altar at Heliopolis, 
which some take as the subject of the proph- 
ecy. But that erection was against the law 
and could not be called Divine, though by 
man's self-wilt intended to be so. Besides, that 
was an altar of sacrifice and not a memorial 
pillar as here described. Others think the 
reference is to the establishment of churches 
in Egypt, which were numerous in the early 
Christian ages. But these properly had no 
visible local altar at all, neither had they any 
one monumental '^ pillar " to answer this de- 
scription. When this altar gives forth, its wit- 
ness to Jehovah, Egypt, Assyria, and Israel 
are to become a holy triad of divinely ap- 
proved^peoples, which has never yet occurred. 
'' A Saviour, and a great one,'^ is then to come 
to Egypt, and deliver from all oppressors. But 
this is the language designating the glorious 
Redeemer of the world, and we degrade and 
profane it by applying it as some have done tq 



114 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

the pagan conqueror, Alexander. Christ, in- 
deed, came to Egypt in his infancy, and after- 
wards in his Gospel, but never in the character 
of a national deliverer. We therefore look in 
vain for any true and exhaustive fulfilment of 
this prophecy in the past. It must refer to 
the latter times, and it fits to nothing known 
but the Great Pyramid. Even Vitringa, as 
early as the beginning of the last century, 
threw out the idea in his commentary on this 
place that some one or other of the existing 
monuments of Egypt is here involved. 

The Pyramid and the Book of Job. 

There is a still more distinct reference to 
the Great Pyramid in the Book of Job, 38 : 
1—7. We there have one of the grandest de- 
scriptions in the Bible. The speaker is God, 
and the subject is the creation of the earth. 
The picture is the building of an edifice. 
Elsewhere in the book the earth is said to be 
hung upon nothing ; so that we must not sujd- 
pose ignorance of the real facts when thg earth 
is here likened to a building resting on foun- 
dations. To overwdielm the pride of the 
human understandiniz' the Lord answered Job 
out of the whirlwind and said, " Who is this 
that darkeneth counsel by words without 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 115 

knowledge ? Gird up now thy loins like a 
man, for I will demand of thee, and answer 
thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the 
foundations of the earth ? Declare, if thou 
hast understanding. Who laid the measures 
thereof, if thou knowest ? Or who hath 
stretched the line upon it ? Whereupon are 
the foundations fastened [or " made to sink " 
as a seal into wax] ? Or who laid the corner-- 
stone thereof, when the morning stars sang to- 
gether, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" 
'^ Behold here the architecture of God ! 
The terms are those of the geometer — the 
master buildqj. Here are the bases, the joint- 
ings, the lines, the height, the corner-stone, 
the measures !" And the style of the building 
is unquestionably the Pyramid. That '' corner- 
stone " spoken of in the singular, its emphatic 
isolation from '^ the foundations," and the 
singing and shouting of the heavenly hosts 
over the mighty achievement at the laying of 
that particular stone, require the proper py- 
ramidal edifice. The picture will not interpret 
of anything else. That corner-stone could not 
be at the base,* for others were there against 

: ■\ 

* This is also distinctly expressed in the ancient Coptic ver- 
sion, translated by Archdeacon Tattam. There in the sixth 
verse the language is, "Who hath laid the corner-stone upon 



116 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

which no such marked distinction in truth 
existed, and its laying would then have been 
at the beginning,* at which time this celestial 
celebration would be out of place. Even 
Barnes, contrary to the erroneous imagery by 
which he tries to interpret the passage, agrees 
that '^ the time referred to is at the close of the 
creation of the earth." And as this celebra- 
tion according to God himself is at the laying 
of that corner-stone, it must needs be a top 
stone — a corner-stone at the summit — whose 
laying completed the edifice and showed the 
whole work in finished perfection. But for 
such a corner-stone at the summit there is no 
place in any then known form of building, 
save only the Pyramid, of which it is charac- 
teristic. 

Nor is it only to the pyramidal form in 
general that the allusion is, but to a particular 
pyramid. By that strange reference to the 
sunken feet or planting of the foundations in 
'' sockets," we are conducted directly to the 
Great Pyramid of Gizeh. Two socketed " en- 
castrements," " socles," shoes, or incised sinkings 

UT'' If a base corner-stone were in contemplation it would be 
in place to speak of the placing of the building upon it ; but 
onlj'- a top or summit corner-stone can be said to be laid 
" upon " the building, and no building has such a top corner- 
stone but the Pyramid. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 117 

into the rock were found under two of its base 
corners by the French savants in 1799, which 
were again uncovered and described by Colonel 
Howard Vyse, in 1837. And as God here 
speaks of such a fastening down of the foun- 
dations in general^ Prof. Smyth was persuaded 
that there were corresponding " sockets " at 
the other two base corners, and when search 
was made for them in 1865, they were found 
by Messrs. Aiton and Inglis, assisted by Prof 
Smyth. Here then are the whole four "sock- 
ets " or fastened foundations. Nothing of 
the sort exists at any other known pyramid. 
They are among the distinctive marks of the 
Great Pyramid of Gizeh. They are the en- 
during tracks of its feet cut into the living 
rock, by which Almighty God himself identi- 
fies it for us as the original image from which 
his own description of the creation is drawn. \ 
Men may treat the matter as they will, but 
here are the facts showing a Divine recogni- 
tion of this particular edifice as the special 
symbol of the earth's formation ! 

And from the same passage we also get 
some important rays of Divine light with re- 
gard to the builders of this pillar and their 
estimate of it. 

The singers and shouters at the completion 



118 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

of the earth's creation of course were heavenly 
intelligenceSj as most expositors agree in teach- 
ing. But as the laying of the capstone of the 
Great Pyramid is divinely given as the sym- 
bol of the laying of the capstone in the fabric 
of our world, the singers and their rejoicings 
so sublimely referred to in the one case must 
also have had place in the other. 

It is never to be overlooked that there are 
earthly " morning stars " and " sons of God " 
as well as heavenly ones. " As many as are 
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of 
God." There were such '' sons of God " on 
earth before the flood. Adam was one of them, 
and his immediate descendants in the line of 
Seth were others. Many of them apostatized, 
but some remained faithful. Noah was one of 
those faithful ones, and he was brought over 
the great water bearing with him all the sacred 
rites, traditions, and revelations of his holy 
fathers. By him the newly baptized world- 
began once more. Prom his coming out of 
the ark to the building of the Great Pyramid, 
the call of Abraham, and the commission of 
Moses, was really the morning time of our pres- 
ent world. Like other mornings it had its 
noble '' stars " and '' sons of God " who shone 
with patriarchal faithfulness and glorious tes- 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 119 

timony in their time. Shem and numbers of 
his seed at Jeast were of this class. Job, and 
Melchisedec, and Abraham were pre-eminent 
among them. Jehovah has always had a peo- 
ple of his own among men, a people who re- 
flected his mind and will, preserved his reve- 
lations, obeyed his commands, and kept to the 
pure worship of his name. Even long after 
the call of Abraham there was yet a true 
" priest of the Most High God " in Palestine, 
and another in Midian, and inspired Gentile 
prophets as late as the days of Moses and 
Aaron. These were God's " sons " by faith in 
him and " stars " of light amid the darkness 
of those early times — noble harbingers of the 
coming day. 

Such " morning stars " and " sons of God " 
were on the earth when the Great Pyramid 
was built, corresponding to those in heaven 
w^ien the earth was made. And as the one 
^structure is the symbol of the other, even to 
its most hidden mysteries and measures, the 
analogy would be singularly incomplete in one 
of the most significant features of the divinely 
drawn parallel if the singing and shouting did 
not occur in one case as in the other. 

But if these early light-bearers and children 
of God on earth sung and shouted at the lay- 



120 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

ing of the capstone of the Great Pyramid as 
the heavenly hosts sung and shouted when the 
fabric of the world was completed, they must 
needs have understood it and been in deepest 
sympathy with it. It must have been identi- 
fied with their most sacred thouc^hts and con- 
temptations. It must have been of a character 
in full and glorious accord with what distin- 
guished them from other people and made them 
'^ stars " and " sons of God." It must have 
been something most profoundly related to 
Jehovah and the holy treasures of his ancient 
revelations and promises, and hence not a mere 
obtrusive; tomb got up by some proud, oppres- 
sive, and beast-worshipping worldly tyrant. 

From the Book of God itself we thus legiti- 
mately gather that the Great Pyramid did not 
originate with idolatrous Egypt ; that it con- 
nects with the most precious things of those 
'' sons of God" who shone as lights in the dim 
morning of the world's history ; that it was 
the subject of their devoutest joy and grati- 
tude ; and that in their esteem it was every- 
thing which it is now supposed to be. 

The Pyramid and Christ. 

But then we would expect it also to refer to 
Christ and redemption. The great subject of 



A MIEACLE IN STONE. 121 

all sacred Revelation is the Christ and his glori- 
ous kingdom, and we can hardly suppose this 
pillar Divine if it has not something on this 
point. Men may well sneernat the idea of a 
special revelation to old Cheops or his archi- 
tects to teach the diameter, density, and tem- 
perature of the earth. Something of mightier 
moment to mankind must be involved when 
Jehovah thus interposes. Such claims need 
to be tried by the pre-eminent theme of all 
inspiration. But even on this high ground the 
Great Pyramid sustains itself full as grandly 
as in the sphere of cosmic facts and geodetic 
measures. 

When Zerubbabel and Jeshua were engaged 
rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple on the 
return from the great captivity, they had in 
hand a work of extraordinary greatness, diffi- 
culty, and discouragements. So important was 
it in itself, and so bound up in history and 
type with another and greater restoration, that 
it was made the occasion and subject of special 
Divine communication throusrh Zechariah the 
prophet. And in those prophecies that work 
and all that it typified is set forth under the 
image of the building of the Pyramid. A 
'^ great mountain " of worldly power and diffi- 
culty was in the way, but God said it should 



122 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

become " a plain before Zerubbabel," as the 
Gizeh bill was levelled to receive the Great 
Pyramid. As despite all hindrances the Pyra- 
mid was successfully carried forward to com- 
pletion, even to the laying of the peculiar 
corner-stone of its apex amid the songs of 
^nhe morning stars" and the shouts of ''all 
the sons of God," so was Zerubbabel and he 
wbom Zerubbabel typified to succeed in their 
Divine work, even to the '^ bringing forth of 
the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, 
' Grace, Grace unto it.'" (Zech. 4 : 6, 7.) The 
pyranjid idea is absolutely -essential to an in- 
telligible and consistent interpretation of this 
imagery. The picture is an exact parallel to 
the one in Job, only transferred from nature 
to grace,- — from geologic to Messianic territory. 

By necessary implications of Holy Scripture 
then the Great Pyramid is immutably linked 
with the building of the Church of which the 
adorable Jesus is " the headstone," '' the chief 
corner-stone." 

It is also a clear and outstanding fact that 
the Scriptures continually make the pyramid 
capstone the type and symbol of Christ, both 
in the Old Testament and in the New. Who 
needs to be reminded with what brilliant dic- 
tion Moses likens Jehovah to a rock, and how 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 123 

triumphantly he asserts against all the heathen 
world, that '' their rock is not as our rock, 
even our enemies themselves being judges !" 
Out of the very spirit as well as letter of the 
Holy Book every Christian congregation using 
the English tongue, often lifts up its voice to 
Jesus, singing 

Rock of ages, cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in thee ! 

He is not only such a rock as that which 
yielded thirsty Israel drink, or as that which 
gives the weary traveller shelter from the 
scorching sunshine or beating storm, or as 
that which the prudent builder seeks whereon 
to found his house securely, but especially 
such a rock as that vfhich forms the apex of 
the Pyramid — a rock which is the head and 
crown of all the works of Providence and 
grace — the unique bond in which the whole 
edifice of time is united — the headstone of 
redemption lifted high above all other rocks, 
" that in all things he might have the pre- 
eminence." So David conceived of him when 
he sung, ^' The stone which the builders re- 
fused is become the headstone of the corner," 
or " the head corner-stone," as the Septuagint 
renders it. (Ps. 118 : 22.) So Peter being 



124 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

"filled with the Holy Ghost," conceived of 
him when he said to the Jews who had con- 
demned and crucified him, " This is the stone 
which , was set at naught by you builders 
w^hich is become the head of the corner." 
(Acts 4 : 11.) Hence, also, he wrote to his 
scattered brethren in the faith as having come 
to Jesus, " as unto a living stone disallowed 
indeed of men, but chosen of God, and pre- 
cious," in whom they also " as lively stones 
were built up a spiritual house," according to 
the saying of God, " Behold I lay in Zion a 
chief corner-stone, elect, precious," even " the 
stone which the builders disallowed," but 
which now " is made the head of the corner, 
and a stone of stumbling and a rock of 
offence even to them which stumble at the 
word." (1 Pet. 2 : 4-8.) So Paul conceived 
of him when he wrote to the Ephesians, " Ye 
are built upon the foundation of the apostles 
and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the 
chief corner-stone, in whom all the building 
fitly framed together groweth unto an holy 
temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are 
builded together for an habitation of God 
through the spirit." (Eph. 2 : 20-22.) And 
the same conception Jesus applied to himself 
when he said, " Did ye never read in the 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 125 

Scriptures, the stone wliicli the builders re- 
jected the same is become the head of the 
corner? And whosoever shall fall on this 
stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it 
shall fall it will grind him to powder." (Matt. 
21 : 42-44.) 

All these are great central passages of the 
Divine word, and not one of them will inter- 
pret without the Pyramid, whose light alone 
brings out their full significance and beauty. 
It is absurd enough when men speak of a 
river's head at one end of it, and its mouth at 
the other end ; but it is unbearable to repre- 
sent the Holy Ghost treating of the head of a 
thing as in its toes. Interpreters may put 
such absurdities in the Bible, but its author 
never does. The head is not the foot nor the 
foot the head in any consistent or intelligible 
use of language. So the head corner-stone 
cannot be the foot or foundation corner-stone. 
Where there are four alike, to regard one as 
chief is a mere conventionalism without real- 
ity in fact, and such as the Bible never em- 
ploys. Common architecture furnishes no one 
pre-eminent corner or corner-stone. There is 
no head corner without the Pyramid. That 
alone has such a head at the head, or a corner- 
stone uniquely and indisputably the chief. It 

6* 



126 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

has the usual four at the base, alike in shape, 
place and office, but it has a fifth, different 
from all others and far more exalted. It is at 
the top, and properly the head one. It is the 
last to come into place and so may be long 
rejected while the building still goes on. The 
base corner-stones must be laid at the begin- 
ning. Work cannot proceed while either of 
them is disallowed. They are also of such 
regular shape as renders them capable of being 
worked in as well at one place as at another. 
They furnish no occasion to be disallowed. 
Not so the head corner-stone. The shape of 
that is altogether peculiar. It is five-sided 
and five-pointed. From foundation to summit 
there is no place at which it will fit till every- 
thing else is finished and its own proper place 
is reached. Till then it is naturally enough 
rejected by the builders. They have no place 
for it. To those ignorant of its purpose it is 
o.nly in the way — " a rock of offence and a 
stone of stumbling." With one sharp point 
always sticking upwards, any one falling on it 
would necessarily " be broken." And when 
on its way to its position hundreds of feet in 
the air were it to fall on any one it w^ould cer- 
tainly '^ grind him to powder." 

But though rejected to the last, it finally 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 127 

turns out to be the very thing required, and 
reaches a place to which it alone fits ; a place 
above all others, where it sublimely finishes 
out and binds together everything in one 
glorious whole. It is itself a perfect pyramid, 
the original model of the edifice which it com- 
pletes and adorns. It is emphatically the head 
stone of the head corner. It is at the head 
and not at the feet. It has its own peculiar 
angles and they are the angles of the entire 
structure. There is but one stone of that 
shape and it is the shape of the pyramid com- 
plete. It is the stone which stands toward 
Heaven for every other in the building. Every 
other stone in all the mighty construction 
stands in it, and has place with reference to it, 
and is touched by its weight and influence, as 
well as sheltered under its lines, and honored 
and perfected by its presence. It is indeed 
the '^ all in all " of the whole edifice. To its 
angles is " all the building fitly framed to- 
gether." And in it every part and particle that 
belongs to the structure from foundation to 
capstone has its bond of perfectness, its shelter, 
and its crown. 

About such imagery there should be no 
question. In all the richness of the Scrip- 
tures there is not a more luminous, expressive, 

7 



128 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

and comprehensive picture of the Christ, in 
himself, in his experiences, in his relaticms to 
his friends or foes, in his office and place in all 
the dispensations of God toward our race, than 
that which is given in these texts when studied 
in the light of the Great Pyramid. These 
passages alone consecrate and sanctify it for- 
ever. In them the Holy Ghost takes hold of 
it, traces in it a sacred significance, and assigns 
to it relations and connections, the truth and 
beauty of which cannot be disputed. And 
thus by the highest authority knoAvn to man 
it is rendered impossible to be thoroughly true 
to the utterances of inspiration, and yet regard 
this venerable monument as nothing but the 
profane tomb of a pagan despot. 

The Pyramid and the Christian Dispensation. 

And this sublime testimony to the Great 
Pyramid from without is also fully sustained 
by its own testimony from within. We have 
seen in a former lecture how grandly it symbol- 
izes the truths of nature. Let us glance now 
at its syrabolizations of Grace. 

Prof Smyth relates that in the course of the 
summer of 1872, Mr. Charles Casey, of Pol- 
lerton Castle, Carlow, wrote him that while he 
had followed and adopted all the explanations 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 129 

as to the metrology of the Great Pyramid 
being of more than human scientific perfection 
for the age in which it was produced, — yet to 
call it therefore divinely inspired or " sacred " 
seemed to him to be either too much or too 
little. " Now, said Mr. Casey, unless the 
Great Pyramid can be shown to be Messianic 
as well as fraught with superhuman science 
and design, its ' sacred ' claim is a thing with 
no blood in it, — nothing but mere sounding 
brass." Nor was this an unreasonable test. 
And it is one which I am happy to say the 
Great Pyramid very nobly stands. 

Tlie first to break ground in this department 
was Robert Menzies, a young shipbuilder and 
draughtsman, of Leith, Scotland, a Christian 
Israelite who never saw the Great Pyramid, 
but had long been engaged in the devout study 
of the works which describe it. In 1865 he 
wrote to Prof Smyth that the immense su- 
periority of the height and finish of the Grand 
Gallery over every other passage is owing to 
the fact that it represents the Christian dis- 
pensation, while the other passages symbolize 
only human histories or preparatory dispensa- 
tions. He also had good reason for this con- 
clusion, more perhaps than he knew. 

The Christian dispensation' by common con- 



130 4 MIRACLE IN STONE. 

sent dates from the birth of Christ. If the 
Grand Gallery represents it, then the mark for 
the birth of Christ is the commencement of 
that gallery. The unit or that which counts 
one in pyramid measure is the inch, and so the 
inch, as in the diagonals of the base, symbol- 
izes the grand unit of time, a year, at least in 
the floorlines of the passages taken as scrolls 
of history. Measuring thirty-three inches 
then from the beginning of the Grand Gallery 
for the duration of the earthly life of Christ, 
we come precisely over against the mouth of 
that mysterious " well " with its ramp-stone 
cover gone, as if violently forced out from 
beneath. That " well " extends irregularly 
down through the masonry and rock to a wide 
cavern, and thence to the entrance of the 
bottomless pit itself. It is a striking symbol 
of death, sealing up in the sepulchre, descent 
into hell, and triumphant resurrection in ir- 
resistible power. And it comes at a place to 
fit precisely to the death and resurrection of 
our blessed Lord. This certainly is a very 
strong point with which to begin. 

The Christian dispensation is emphatically 
the dispensation of new life. Its pervading 
spirit is that of resurrection. Basing itself on 
the resurrection of Christ as its great sealing 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 131 

fact, it went everywhere in the power of the 
Holy Ghost awakening men oat of their moral 
graves and calling them forth in a new birth, 
" that like as Christ was raised from the dead 
by the glory of the Father, even so we also 
should walk in newness of life." Mostintensely 
also is tbis signified throughout the whole 
length of the Grand Gallery of our Pyramid. 
It is lined along its base on both sides with 
ramp-stones like " washboards " to a stairway. 
They are about a foot high and wide, and they 
are all cut with miniature symbolic graves 
every one of which is open. More than this, 
right by the side of each of these open graves 
is a neatly cut stone set vertically in the v/all. 
It is a symbol of standing upright, and almost 
audibly proclaims the tenants of those open 
graves risen, as all true Christians are, not 
only from the death of sin, but to an heirship 
of a still completer resurrection through him 
who is to come again. There are eight times 
seven of these open graves. Eight is the 
number of new life and resurrection, and seven 
of dispensational fulness, so that by their 
numbers they also signify this newness of life. 
We thus have one of the intensest and most 
spiritual features of the Gospel as emphatically 
pronounced as stones can speak it. 



132 A MIRACLE m STONE. 

The Christian dispensation is likewise pic- 
tured in the Bible as made up of seven churches 
headed by " seven stars " which are " the 
angels of the seven churches." So the best 
and earliest commentators explain that first 
vision of the Apocalypse, which allows very 
little room for differences of opinion. And a 
corresponding symbol of the same is contained 
in this Grand Gallery. It stares every one in 
the face the moment the place is entered. All 
writers have described it as one of the peculiar 
beauties of the singular arrangement. Each 
side of the wall is made up of just seven 
courses of finely fitted polished stones, the one 
overlapping the other and extending the whole 
leno-th from commencement to termination. 
It is the gallery of the seven courses just 
seven times the height of the other passages. 
Besides, this gallery has special relations to 
the Pleiades. It tells in several ways of those 
benignant and exalted stars. In its own way 
it thus also points to the " seven stars " as 
presiding over the seven churches. 

As a matter of historic fact the Christian 
dispensation followed immediately on the Jew- 
ish economy, of which it is the crown and 
completion. The law leads the way to Christ. 
This historical succession is also carefully pre- 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 133 

served in the syrabolizations of our Pyramid. 
The first upward passage which leads to the 
Grand Gallery is just the number of inches in 
length which the best chronologists give as the 
number of years from the Exodus to the birth 
of Christ. It is the way to the Grand Gallery 
as the Jewish dispensation is the way to the 
Christian. 

The Christian dispensation also has a fixed 
limit. It is to terminate with the coming 
again of the Lord Jesus to judge the quick 
and the dead. Every commission under which 
we now act extends only to that time. And 
that coming of Christ to end this age is every- 
wdiere presented as impending, — as a thing 
which might occur any day. All this is like- 
wise symbolized in the Grand Gallery of the 
Great Pyramid. Its termination is as distinctly 
marked as its beginning, and even the impend- 
ingness of the end is not overlooked. Its 
south or further wall leans a full degree and 
overhangs its base as if it might fall at any 
moment. 

From my studies of the Apocalypse, -I was 
led to publish years ago my firm belief that 
the present Church period is to be succeeded 
by a dispensation of judgment extending 
through years before the great consummation 

7 



134 A MIEACLE IN BTONE. 

is reached. And here we have it most evi- 
dently symbolized next after the end of the 
Grand Gallery. There the passage becomes 
low again, for the Church as such has ended its 
career. There the " granite leaf " — a great 
frowning double stone — hangs in its grooves, 
beneath which every one that passes in must 
bow, exhibiting a most impressive picture of 
"the great tribulation" of the judgment 
period. There also are the rules and measures 
by which the Pyramid was constructed, all 
graven on the stones, indicative of the com- 
plete righting up of everything according to 
law and justice. And then only comes the 
entrance into the grand and polished granite 
chamber of the king. 

One of the most exalted steps in the history 
of #the Church is that which was accomplished 
during the first quarter of our present century. 
It was in the first twenty-five years since 1800 
that Christendom throughout the world formed 
its great organizations for the dissemination of 
the Holy Scriptures, for the publication and 
general diffusion of religious literature and 
Gospel truth, and for the sending out and sup- 
port of missionaries to the heathen, to plant 
the Church of Jesus in all lands and islands. 
It was in those years that the Christian world 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 135 

experienced a revival of aggressive evangeliza- 
tion and missionary zeal, the greatest and 
the most general since the days of the Apostles, 
the effects of which continue with still increas- 
ing power. The coming into activity of these 
organizations with their results was so marked 
an advance on everything of the kind for more 
than twelve hundred years, and so universal 
that we might justly expect it to be noted in 
any complete prophetic symbolization of our 
dispensation. Accordingly following the floor- 
line of the Pyramid's Grand Gallery towards 
its upper end we come to a grand step three 
feet high. I long wondered what it could 
mean, as it is the only one in the whole length 
of the glorious passage after that somewhat 
corresponding rise not far from the beginning. 
But when I came to count the number of 
inches from the commencement of the Grand 
Galleiy to this upper step the mystery was 
solved. The number of those inches is close 
about one thousand eight hundred and fourteen, 
which at the rate of an inch for a year brings 
us to the very centre of those years in which 
the Church universal made this mighty, and 
unexampled stride. Beyond this step there 
is no further ascent. The great stone which 
forms it is also the weakest and most frac- 



136 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

tured and dilapidated of all the stones in the 
whole passage-way of the Grand Gallery. It 
shows a marvellous rise, but an equally mar- 
vellous absence of solidity and strength. It 
is the image of brokenness, feebleness, and the 
want of firm texture. It seems as if crum- 
bling away under the feet of those who stand 
upon it. And this again most strikingly ac- 
cords with the poor, rent, weak, and wasting 
character of the Christianity of our times, 
though they be times of universal evangeliza- 
tion. It is Christianity, and evinces a great 
rise in effort and aim ; but it is a very shat- 
tered and infirm Christianity, with but little 
solid substance left and incapable of enduring 
long. 

Thus there is scarce a feature of our dispen- 
sation from the birth of Christ till now, or that 
is anvwhere foretold of its end, which is not 
symbolized in the Grand Gallery of the Great 
Pyramid. Man in all his ingenuity is incom- 
petent to devise a simpler and completer chart 
of it, were he to labor at it for ages. And 
yet here it is in all its great facts, characteris- 
tics, and relations, in its beginning and end, 
in its constitution and history, in what went 
before and in what comes after, built into an 
edifice of mighty rocks more than three times 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 137 

Kseven hundred years before Christ was born. 
All this certainly is very remarkable. 

Is it then within the reason of man to say 
that there was nothing above and beyond mere 
human power and calculation here, — no potent 
presence of that Mind which knows the end 
of all things from the beginning, and giveth 
wisdom unto the wise ? 

The Pyramid and Theology. 

Tested also by the more inward substance 
and contents of sound Scriptural doctrine, the 
facts are equally remarkable and cogent. 

The foundation of all sacred doctrines is 
the existence of a personal and eternal God, 
the Almighty Maker of heaven and earth. 
The Bible pronounces that man a " fool " — one 
criminally self-stultified — who can find it in 
his heart to say, "there is no God." So also 
the Great Pyramid teaches. It symbolizes the 
earth and all the universe as a contrivance, a 
work, a building, shaped to Promethean plan. 
It must therefore have had a contriver, an in- 
telligent and potent author, greater than itself. 
It thus pronounces at one and the same time 
against Atheism, against Sabaism, against 
Pantheism, and against all idolatry and false 
worship. It knows nothing of a world with- 



f-^ 



138 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

out an architect, of creaturehood without hasis 
or centre, of beauty without parent or birth- 
place, of good without a bosom out of which it 
flows, of thought without reason, of effect with- 
out a cause. It proclaims the universe a prod- 
uct, and one self-competent God as its author. 
It is an essential part of orthodox theology 
that Jehovah is a three-one God. " The true 
Christian faith is this, that we worship one 
God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither 
confounding the persons nor dividing the sub- 
stance." And when we ascribe glory to the 
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, 
we rightfully add " as it was in the beginning," 
for so is the representation in this Pyramid 
before the Bible was written. On each of its 
four faces as in its fundamental figure it pre- 
sents to every beholder the geometric emblem 
of the Trinity, the same that is accepted by 
the Church and exhibited in nearly every 
place of Christian worship. Creation is the 
reflection of God himself, and the Pyramid as 
a symbol of the creation gives impressive token 
of His mysterious Tri-unity. Nature reflects 
Trinity, and this symbol of nature does the 
same with a depth and stress which cannot be 
disputed. Shaw states that the Deity is typi- 
fied by the outward form of this pile, and that 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 139 

form is a triangle whether viewed on either 
side or from either corner. 

The architect of the world this monument 
likewise proclaims to be the King of the world, 
a governing and upholding Providence as 
well as a tri-personal Creator. Those measures, 
motions, interrelations, and vast revolutions 
which it symbolizes, all tell that the universe 
does not hold God but that thus he holds and 
manages the universe. They are the grasp 
and pressure of an infinite and Almighty hand, 
whosefingers clasp the crystal poles of the earth 
and heavens, and under whose protecting palm 
the continents and seas, planets, suns, and sys- 
tems pass with unMtering steadiness from age 
to age. And the conformation of its shape, 
measures, avenues, and openings, to cosmic 
and celestial facts, themselves the symbols of 
an eternal Providence, proclaims the potent 
presence of God in the histories as well as in 
the constitution of the earth. 

But the Bible tells also of an evil power in 
the universe — an anti-God — whom it describes 
as an apostate angelic being who has obtained 
a terrible influence over the affairs and destiny 
of man. He is called the Drasron, the old 
Serpent, Satan, the Devil. He is declared to 
be a murderer, a tempter, a destroyer, a liar, 



140 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

the author of all evil, under whose usurped 
dominion mankind, unhelped of God, are 
hopelessly inthralled. And this too is strik- 
ingly expressed by the Great Pyramid. 

From the earliest known times different por- 
tions of the heavens have been designated, 
and known by certain figures supposed to be 
outlined by the stars which they embrace. 
There are now about eighty of these constella- 
tions. The stars of which they are composed 
the Bible declares to be for '^ signs," as well 
as for seasons, days, and years. The proba- 
bility is that the earlier and most remarkable 
of these designations were made by God him- 
self even before the flood. Josephus attributes 
the invention of the constellations to the fam- 
ily of Seth, the son of Adam, and refers to 
ancient writers as authorities. Origen affirms 
that it was asserted in the Book of Enoch that 
in the time of that patriarch the constella- 
tions were already divided and named.* Yol- 

* The Book of Enoch, translated by Bishop Lawrence, is as a 
whole, an apocrj^phal production, dating somewhere about the 
beginning of the reign of Herod, before Christ. It has some 
ten chapters devoted to the mysteries of astronomy, the heav- 
enly bodies, and their relations and revolutions. It will at 
least serve to show what was the feeling on the part of those 
whom the writer represents when he says that all these things 
were made known to Enoch by Uriel, the holy angel, who gave 
"the whole account of them according to every year of the 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 141 

ney informs us that everywhere in antiquity 
there was a cherished tradition of an expected 
conqueror of the serpent, and asserts that this 
tradition is reflected in the constellations as 
well as in all the heathen mythologies. Du- 
puis, also, and others of his school have col- 
lected ancient authorities abundantly proving 
that in all nations this tradition always pre- 
vailed, and that the same is represented in the 
constellations. Indeed, antiquity with one 
voice declares for their very early origin, and 
the results of modern investigations by astron- 
omers themselves confirm the traditions and 
reveal internal evidence of their havinsr been 

a 

constructed more than five thousand years 
ago. Cassini commences his History of Ah- 
tronomy by saying, ''It is impossible to doubt 
that astronomy was invented from the begin- 
ning of the world ; history profane as well as 
sacred testifies to this truth." Bailly and 
others assert that astronomy must have been 
established when the summer solstice was in 
the first degree of Virgo, and that the solar 
and lunar zodiacs were of a similar antiquity, 

world forever, until a new work (or creation) shall be effected 
which will be eternal." The twelve signs of the Zodiac are 
plainly indicated in this book. See Book of Enoch, chap. 71, 
seg-., pp. 84, 85, and 232, 



142 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

which would be about four thousand yeans 
before the Christian era. They suppose the 
originators to have lived in about the fortieth 
degree of north latitude, and to have been a 
highly civilized people. Prof Proctor, by cal- 
culations based on Hindoo and other astron- 
omies, traces the authors of this science to 
some people residing between the rivers Cyrus 
and Araxas, not very far from Mount Ararat, 
at a date perhaps two thousand two hundred 
years before Christ. Sir William Drummond 
says, " The fact is certain that at some remote 
period there were mathematicians and astron- 
omers who knew that the sun is the centre of 
our system, and that the earth itself a planet 
revolves around it." The constellations were 
certainly known in the time of Job, and are 
familiarly referred to in that very ancient 
book. Seyffarth says they are as old as the 
human race. The author of Mazzaroth makes 
the origin of the constellations antediluvian, 
and thinks they were framed by inspiration 
for sacred and prophetic purposes. There are 
actual astronomical calculations in existence 
with calendars formed upon them, which emi- 
nent astronomers of England and France 
admit to be genuine and true, and which carry 
back the antiquity of this science together 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 143 

with the constellations to within a few years of 
the deluge, even on the longer chronology of 
the Septuagint. Sir John Herschel finds much 
fault with these old constellations as barbarous 
and unscientific. He would have these con- 
torted snakes, miscalled bears, lions, fishes, 
and the like, banished from our astronomies 
as too oppressive to the student's memorv. 
But the author of Mazzaroth very well suggests 
that this learned astronomer perhaps never 
came across the proper meaning of these gro- 
tesque figures or never duly studied them as 
symbols, or he would have been less anxious 
for their obliteration. Nay, the specimens 
which modern astronomers have given of their 
skill at such reforms do not much recommend 
the giving of free scope to them in this par- 
ticular. The universality of these ancient 
groupings must ever secure their retention, 
however disliked by scientists. And the very 
inconvenience of them for naked astronomical 
purposes is proof not of the barbarism of their 
inventors, but that they were meant to serve 
some further end. The most important his- 
torical, theological, and prophetic truths have 
been inscribed on the heavens by means of 
them, so that they need only to be stripped of 
the changes, caricatures, and interpolations of 



144 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

the heathen Greeks and modern scientists in 
order to show us the outlines of the Bible on 
the sky, and to prove that in a high, evangelic, 
and most impressive sense " the heavens de- 
clare the glory of God." The author of Maz- 
zaroth and others have not only said but 
shown that we have in these ancient constel- 
lations a medium of communication with the 
mind, theology, and hopes of primitive man, 
and that we here may read the fact that God 
has spoken to our race, given to it a Revelation 
from the beginning, and embodied in it pre- 
cisely the same great truths afterwards written 
and developed in the sacred Scriptures. Every- 
where do we encounter the traditions of Abra- 
ham's skill in the knowledge of the heavens, 
how he argued from his observations of the 
heavenly orbs, and how he occupied himself 
in Egypt teaching the priests of Heliopolis in 
the lore of the skies. Doubtless this was not 
the naked science of astronomy as the schools 
conceive of it, but as respected the theological 
and Messianic truths symbolized in these celes- 
tial hieroglyphics, in which, as in the more 
literal promises, he rejoiced to see Christ's day, 
and saw it and was glad. (John 8 : 56.) 
Well, therefore, has it been that these ancient 
" signs " have been preserved. And mankind 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 145 

have reason to pray that no hand of intermed- 
dling science may ever sweep them down, but 
that they may continue to stand unto the end 
in all the almanacs of time. 

One of the oldest and most universal of 
these ancient constellations is the Dragon or 
Great Serpent. The chief star embraced in 
that group (« Draconis) is situated in the 
monster's tail. And to that star the entrance 
passage of the Great Pyramid was levelled, so 
that « Draconis at its lower culmination then 
looked right down that inclined tube to the 
bottomless pit. Mankind marching down that 
passage would therefore be moving under the 
sign and dominion of the Dragon. Thus in 
a manner which startles by its vividness the 
Great Pyramid answers to the Bible in saying 
that there is a Devil, who has somehow ob- 
tained an awful potency over the human race, 
and that mankind under him are on the way 
to the pit of destruction. The picture is that 
of a tube over which the Dragon presides, 
whose incline is fearfully downwards, and 
which terminates in hell! Could the story be 
told in simpler or more graphic terms ? 

Some laugh at the idea of a hell. Even 
whole denominations calling themselves Chris- 
tians make it a point of faith to deny the 



146 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

existence of any such thing. But the Bible 
tells about it as a dark and mysterious under- 
world — a bottomless pit — a subterranean region 
of hopeless misery, — out of which there is no 
escape. And here is the symbol of it in the 
Great Pyramid — a room far under the centre 
of the edifice, one hundredTfeet down in the 
solid rock, having neither bottom nor outlet. 
it has continuity in a tube on the further side, 
but it is endless, the same as the pit is bot- 
tomless. With singular significance has this 
feature been copied in all other pyramids, to 
whose hopeless subterranean chambers the 
kings of idolatrous and self-justifying Egypt 
were consigned. Hence the words of Ezekiel 
(31 : 14-18): " They are all delivered unto 
death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the 
midst of the children of men, w^ith them that 
go down to the pit. . . This is Pharaoh and 
all his multitude, saith the Lord God." And 
in the facile and smooth descent of that main 
passage-way leading directly down to the pit 
we have the symbol of the' tendency and 
hopeless destiny of man since his fall into 
Satan's power, except as recovered by some 
gracious intervention superior to nature and 
mightier than the Devil. 

But the gh\d and glorious teaching of the 



A MIEACLE IN STONE. 147 

Bible is that God has interposed, introduced a 
new and saving economy, calling Abraham, 
commissioning and inspiring Moses and the 
prophets, establishing for himself a consecrated 
people, and preparing the way for a sublime 
Deliverer in Jesus Christ, who has brought 
foro^iveness and eternal life into the world, and 
arransied for a new and eternal dominion of 
righteousness and peace, which is to dethrone 
Satan and bring man back to original blessed- 
ness. This is the very soul and spirit of the 
Scriptures — the master theme of both Testa- 
ments and of all their institutes. And the 
same is the great subject of all the chief parts 
of the Great Pyramid's interior— the burden 
of its noblest passages — the story of all its 
upper apartments. 

The first ascending passage begins at the 
point which answers in the number of its year- 
inches to the date of the Exodus of Israel. It 
also covers by its length the precise number 
of inches that there were years from the Exo- 
dus to the birth of Christ. We thus identify 
it as the Pyramid's symbol of the Mosaic dis- 
pensation. That dispensation was an upward 
movement in human history founded on direct 
supernatural interferences of the Almighty, 
and so this is an upward passage with the 



148 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

» 

same angle heavenward as that of the entrance 
passage is hellward. It is a most expressive 
symbol of a special and effective interposition 
of God to raise men up from their decline 
toward destruction, and thus furnishes us with 
a monumental testimony to the whole Scrip- 
tural representation of that economy. 

But the Mosaic dispensation was only inter- 
mediate and preliminary to something greater 
and higher. Hence that upward passage sud- 
denly enlarges into a far more magnificent as- 
cending opening. The top abruptly rises to 
seven times the previous height, and every- 
thing is correspondingly exalted into the 
Grand Gallery. This is the symbol of the 
Christian era— -the grandest section in all the 
scrolls of human history. It begins at the 
inch which marks the Saviour's birth. Thirty- 
three inches from that beginning bring us to 
the startling symbol of death, burial, descent 
into hell, and resurrection from the dead,— to 
that fearful '' well " with its heavy stone cover- 
ing broken out by an upward force which tore 
away a part of the wall itself, " for it was not 
possible that he should be holden of death." 
The entire length is covered with thirty-six 
overspanning stones, the number of months 
of Christ's public ministry. And beyond is 



A MIRACLE IN STONE* 149 

the granite King's Chamber in which all con- 
summates. And there the polished wallsj 
fine materials, grand proportions, and exalted 
place, eloquently tell of glories yet to come. 
It is the chamber of fifties, which is the grand 
jubilee number. 

Nay, for those Gentiles who never knew of 
Israel's worship and sacred books there is also 
a word of hope inserted. They are not neces- 
sarily all lost. From the lowest depths of 
Ethnic apostasy the Great Pyramid still indi- 
cates a way Cip through the atoning death of 
Christ to the celestial blessedness. It is a 
steep, tortuous, difficult, dangerous, and un- 
certain way, not likely to be found and safely 
traversed by many ; but it is there. It is a 
speaking S3^mbol of what the inspired Apostle 
declared so long afterwards, that " in every 
nation he that feareth God and worketh right- 
eousness is accepted of him," accepted through 
the mediation of Christ. 

Here are symbolizations of sacred histories 
whose warp and woof is miracle. Here are 
expressions the soul of which is the same 
Divine breath which animates and fills the 
Testaments of God. Here are heavenward 
pointings and indications of the way to eternal 
life as distinct and gracious as those which 

7* 



150 A MIRACLE IN STOKE. 

mark the holy Evan gel j itself. It is the 
Gospel pronounced in stone. It is the testi- 
mony of " Jesus and the resurrection " put up 
in imperishable rock. It is redemption me- 
morialized in marble more than twenty cen- 
turies before the Christ was born ! Could it 
be mere accident ? Was it not rather the dear 
God above us laying up the sublime things 
of his grace in enduring lithic records which 
man could not alter nor time destroy to de- 
monstrate to the skeptics of our day how un- 
reasonable and inexcusable is their unbelief? 

The Pyramid and the Day of Judgment. 

* The Bible moreover tells of a nearing day 
of judgment—a time when the Almighty 
power that made us will reckon with us con- 
cerning these earthly lives of ours, and deal 
out destiny according to the uses we have made 
of them. In all its addresses, whether didac- 
tic or prophetic, — -whether to warn the wicked 
or comfort the pious, — whether for the vindica- 
tion of God or the foreshadowing of what is to 
become of man, — the Bible everywhere refers 
us to an approaching crisis, when the principles 
of eternal justice must go into full effect, when 
the trampled law will inexorably enforce its 
supremacy, when everything must be righted 



A MIRACLE m STONE. 151 

up, and all that is adverse to truth and good 
be forever blasted ; Avhen faith and virtue shall 
be rewarded and enthroned, and all else sink 
overwhelmed by a majesty which nothing can 
withstand. It is described as a time of sorrow 
and unexampled distress for the unbelieving 
world— a time of fears and plagues and great 
tribulation to all but God's watching and ready 
ones, to whom it shall be a day of glorious 
coronation in heaven. Its coming is spoken 
of as sudden — -when men in general do not 
expect it — when many are saying, '^ Peace and 
safety." Like the flood upon the old world — > 
like the tempest of hail and fire which over- 
whelmed Sodom and Gomorrah — so shall it 
come upon the nations. When men think not, 
the Son of man cometh. And all this too is 
solemnly pronounced by the Great Pyramid. 
That Grand Gallery stops abruptly. It is sud- 
denly cut off in its continuity. From a splen- 
did passage-way twenty-eight feet in height it 
ceases instantly, and the further passage is less 
than four feet. The fioorline then no longer 
ascends. A ponderous double block of frown- 
ing granite, hard and invincible, hangs loose 
over the low and narrow pass now. In the 
same antechamber in which it hangs, the 
rules, measures, and weights appear engraven 



152 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

in majesty upon the im perishable granite, for 
every one to pass under. The tokens are that 
now judgment is laid to the line, and right- 
eousness to the plummet, that every cover may 
be lifted, and every refuge of lies swept away. 
Everything here indicates the inexorable ad- 
judications of eternal righteousness. 

And that solemn time is also everywhere 
represented as now close at hand. As far as 
theologians have been able to ascertain, all the 
prophetic dates are about run out. The Scrip- 
tural signs of the end have appeared. Every 
method of computation points to the solemn 
conclusion that we are now on the margin of , 
the end of this age and dispensation. Nor 
does the Great Pyramid fail to tell us the same 
thins:. Measurins; off one thousand eisrht hun- 
dred and seventy-seven inches from the begin- 
ning of the Grand Gallery for the one thousand* 
eight hundred and seventy-seven years since 
the birth of Christ, there remain but a few 
inches more to bring us to its end. So likewise 
when we go forward on the dial of the preces- 
sional cycle to observe the condition of the 
heavens when the last of these inches is 
counted off, the astronomical indications are 
correspondingly remarkable. The Pleiades 
which were on the meridian when the Pyra- 



A MIBACLE IN STONE. 153 

mid was built are then far to the east, with the 
K^ernal equinox at the same time precisely the 
same distance from that meridian to the west, 
whilst the distance from one to the other 
measures the exact age of the Pyramid at that 
date. At the same time a Draconis will asrain 
be on the meridian below the pole, but then 
just seven times lower than at the time of the 
Pyramid's building. This final downward- 
ness of seven times is strikingly suggestive of 
the Dragon's complete dethronement. And 
what is still more remarkable, whilst « Dra- 
conis is on the meridian at this low point, 
Aries, the Ram, appears on the meridian 
above, with the line passing exactly through 
bis horns ! A more vivid astronomical sign 
of the overthrow of Satan under the dominion 
of the Prince of the flock of God it is not pos- 
sible to conceive. It is as if the very heavens 
were proclaiming that then the ever-living 
Lamb takes to him his great power, and enters 
upon his glorious reign ! 

The Pyramid and the Jew, 

It is the opinion of many earnest believers 
in the Scriptures that God is not yet done with 
the Jews as a distinct and peculiar people. As 
a nation they rejected Christ and fell from 



154 A MIKACLE IN STONE. 

their high pre-eminence, and are now on pre- 
cisely the same footing with the Gentiles with 
regard to the Christian dispensation. There 
is no way of salvation nor any special privi- 
leges for them now other than the Gospel 
offers to all men alike. Through the atone- 
ment of Christ and union with him, there is 
redemption for their souls the same as others, 
hnt in no other way. But the belief of many 
is that they are preserved in their singular 
distinctness, even in mibelief, as the subject 
of a grand restoration and conversion when 
the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, and 
that blindness in part has happened unto them, 
in which as a people they will remain till the 
time of the revelation of Jesus Christ at his 
second coming. And to this belief the Great 
Pyramid would also seem to answer in a very 
marked manner. 

A special national token of the Jew is the 
sabbatic system. It was given of God, and 
made to pervade the whole Jewish economy 
as a thing by which the chosen people were to 
be. distinguished from all other nations, and in 
the observance of which they were to exhibit 
themselves as God's people. Disregard of this 
was held to be treason to their King, and a 
forfeiture of all their rights to the promises. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 155 

And this sabbatic system is specially charac- 
teristic of the so-called Queen's Chamber and 
the horizontal passage leading to it. 

They reached their highest point when of 
them Christ was born. The same unbelief by 
w^hich they then were broken off they have 
ever since retained. Hence the avenue which 
I take as a symbol of their history from Christ's 
time is horizontal, except that the last seventh 
of it drops lower than any other part. If the 
latter chapters of Ezekiel (from the thirty- 
sixth onward) and many other passages are to 
be literally taken, and there is great difficulty 
in understanding them in any other way, there 
is to come for Israel a grander restoration than 
that of their return from Babylon, when they 
will be re-established in holiness according to 
their ancient estate, and all their early insti- 
tutes again be righted up and put into full 
effect. Hence this low horizontal passage ter- 
minates in a grand sabbatic room full of the 
most important notations of the measures and 
proportions of the whole Pyramid. 

Those who hold to this restoration of the 
Jews hold also that they will be returned in 
their present unbelief and blindness as regards 
the true Messiah, and will only afterwards 
have the scales removed from their eyes after 



156 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

the manner of Paul, who in this respect was 
as one born hefore the time. And this also 
would seem to be distinctly set forth. Two 
ventilating tubes have recently been discovered 
in the so-called Queen's Chamber, which the 
builders left entirely closed over with a thin 
unbroken scale, which not only shut them from 
all observation but rendered them of no prac- 
tical effect whatever. The room has therefore 
always been noted for its foul air and noisome 
smell, for the atmosphere there was left with- 
out circulation for four thousand years. These 
tubes extended inward through the masonry 
and into the stones formina; the walls of the 
room, all nicely cut, but for about one^ inch 
they were not cut through into the room itself. 
On the hidden sides of the walls these air- 
channels were open, but on the visible sides 
within the room the surface was smooth, even, 
and unbroken, the same as any other part. It 
was only by something of an accident that 
these scales were broken and the channels 
opened into the room itself. So singular an ar- 
rangement could have none other than a sym- 
bolic intent. No architectural reason for the 
peculiarity can at all be traced. And most strik- 
ingly would it serve to signify the blindness of 
the Jew, and his deadness in unbelief, needing 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. . 157 

only the breaking away of those scales for the 
free breath of God to purify every thing again. 
A.nd if this is the meaning of the symbol, it 
accords precisely with the idea of the re-estab- 
lishment of the Jewish nationality before the 
great conversion, and that this breaking away 
of the disabling and defiling scales of blind- 
ness and unbelief remains to be accomplished 
after entrance upon the state symbolized by 
this room. And even then it is only removed 
by a breakage and violence entirely distinct 
from the ordinary course of things, which 
would also be fulfilled in case the general con- 
version of the Jews is to be brought about after 
the manner of that type of it exhibited in 
Paul, who was converted as no other man ever 
has been by the personal apocalypse of the 
Lord Jesus. 

It is also fully agreed by those who hold to 
the belief of a restoration of the Jews, that 
they will then be lifted spiritually far above 
the dead level which has characterized them 
as a nation since the fall of Jerusalem, and 
that quite a new, higher, and holier spirit than 
they ever experienced before will then be 
breathed into their ancient ceremonial. And 
the same would seem to be symbolized in this 
chamber. It has no proper floor, and is entered 

8 



158 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

from a very low plane, even lower than the 
avenue in general. But inside there is a base- 
line marked evenly around it at a range with 
the square top of the entrance passage, indicat- 
ing a grand lifting up after having entered. 
It is in the relative spaces above this line that 
the sabbatism and exalted proportions and 
commensurations of the apartment appear. 

This opens an entirely new field in pyramid 
interpretations, which calls for a more enlarged 
and thorough examination. But what does 
that horizontal sabbatic passage, starting from 
the level of Christ's death and dropping lower 
in the last seventh of its floorline, mean, if 
not the Jew who has risen no higher since the 
rejection of his Messiah, but has fallen lower 
of late by his rationalism, though still preserv- 
ing his distinctness from all other peoples? 
What can that remarkable, separate, sabbatic 
room mean, if not intended to set forth a 
separate and peculiar earthly destiny of the 
Jew ? And what can that grand uplifting 
and the breaking through of those thin stop- 
pages of the ventilation signify, if not the re- 
quickening by the Spirit of God which is 
promised to the Jew for the sake of his fathers, 
when once he shall look upon him whom he 
has pierced ? 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 159 

The Pyramid and Heaven. 

The crown of Christian theology and hope 
is the doctrine concerning heaven, the resi- 
dence of God and his glorified people. When 
the Saviour left the earth, he said, " I go to 
prepare a place for you." Abraham looked 
for a permanent city. Paul spoke hopefully 
of " a building of God, a house not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens." John beheld 
and wrote of " that great city, the holy Jeru- 
salem," even " Jerusalem the golden," of which 
the Church ever sings with such fondness and 
delight. And this too is symbolized in the 
Great Pyramid. If nothing else, the granite 
chamber in which the dispensations of this 
world terminate may serve to tell of it. But 
that chamber seems rather to relate to the 
consummated earthly than to the heavenly. 
There is reason to believe mat another and 
superior chamber exists in the mighty edifice, 
more fully answering to the celestial city. The 
sabbatic chamber is on the twenty-fifth course 
of the masonry, and the granite chamber on 
the fiftieth. To make up the complete count 
there would have to be a third on the one 
hundredth course, corresponding to " the third 
heaven." The Apocalypse, that book of the 



s. 



160 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

consummations, seems also to call for sucli a 
chamber. As '' the seven churches " under 
'' the seven stars" are found in the Grand Gal- 
lery, and the judgment dispensation in the 
ante-room leading to the granite chamber, and 
" the great tribulation " in the granite blocks 
which hang over the passage-way through tliat 
ante-room, there would need to be another and 
higher apartment to answer to the heavenly 
Jerusalem, which the Apocalypse introduces 
as the crown of all. The piles of ancient rub- 
bish from the building of this pyramid which 
cover the breast of the hill also add their 
indications of another chamber of grander 
materials than the others, and higher up in the 
edifice. After a rain Prof. Smyth paced about 
among the gutters which the wash cut into 
these piles of chips and splinters of stone, to 
see what he could find. '^ Towards the top of 
the heap and just in front of, though at a 
great distance from, the Pyramid's entrance 
portal," he found " frequent splinters and frag- 
ments of green and white dioriteJ' This is a 
compact, very hard, cry p to-crystalline forma- 
tion, whitish, speckled with black or greenish- 
black. It is the material of which the cele- 
brated stone statue now in the Boolak Museum 
is cut. It is not native to the pyramid region, 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 161 

and could only have been brought there from 
far, whilst the number of these spalls and 
fragments intermixed with the earth and other 
chippings and offal in the process of this 
pyramid's building would indicate some ex- 
tensive use of that excellent material in this 
structure. Their occurrence near the top of 
the furthest distance of these piles from the 
Pyramid would show that the use made of this 
rock was high up in the edifice and toward its 
completion. But in none of the present open- 
ings has anything been found made of diorite, 
or anything like it. Therefore, Prof Smyth, 
in debating over these fragments, says, " I was 
compelled to gaze up at the Pyramid with its 
vast bulk, and believe that there is another 
chamber still undiscovered there, and one 
which will prove to be the very muniment 
room of the whole monument."* 

And even the way to it may perhaps be 
found from a suggestion which I draw from the 
Apocalypse. The numberless multitude before 
the throne of God (chap. 7 : 9-17) comes '^ out 
of the great tribulation," and if those granite 
blocks suspended over the way through the 
ante-room to the King's Chamber denote the 
great tribulation, as they so expressively do, 

* Life and Work, pp. 187, 188. 



162 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

the way to a room symbolic of heaven would 
seem to be directly from those blocks^ just 
where nobody has ever searched for it. 
Those blocks hang in grooves, and have a boss 
or knob left on the side as if meant to be slid 
up for a purpose ; and the vision of John 
would seem to imply that the lifting of them 
would uncover the way to the room which 
would be the symbol of glory. A light bore 
with a rod so directed as to strike behind those 
blocks would probably reveal whether or not 
there is such a passage from either side at that 
point. And until the facts are ascertained by 
adequate examination,! am inclined to believe, 
from general analogy and from the correspond- 
ence in all other points with the Bible, and 
especially with the Apocalyptic outlines, that 
behind those blocks will be found the way to 
another and superior chamber, situated in the 
upper centre of the building on the one hun- 
dredth course of the masonry. I also antici- 
pate that when it is discovered it will present 
an exact square, sixteen pyramid cubits every 
way, with perhaps three distinct entrances on 
each side, and answering in its prophetic read- 
ings to the twenty-first chapter of the Book of 
the Revelation. Of course this is only a hy- 
pothesis, a theoretic persuasion which needs 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 163 

to be tested by further explorations, but it 
rests on considerations sufficiently strong to 
beget in me the belief that it will be verified 
in fact. Hence I have had the place and pro- 
portions of such a room indicated on the 
diagram. /^^ 

The Pyramid and the Spiritual Universe. 

But man is not the only rational creature 
God has made. As the interval below, between 
him and nothing, is filled up with uncounted 
orders and forms of being, so on rational as 
well as Scriptural grounds it is part of our 
common faith that there are many intellectual 
and spiritual orders above, between him and 
the infinite Creator. These rank in series over 
series of angels and archangels, seraphim and 
cherubim, principalities and powers. And as 
the Pyramid is a Scriptural image of the 
Church, so it is also of this whole spiritual 
universe. Galloway, in his Egypfs Record of 
Time, has noted that " the ascending scale of 
natures above man was revealed to Jacob in 
vision. The collective nature of man is, as it 
were, at the basis of a mighty pyramid of 
spiritual natures ascending by successive stages 
to one glorious apex, from which the whole 
derives unit}^ from which the whole has pro- 



164 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

ceeded, and on which it depends for existence. 
This glorious spiritual pyramid appears to be 
that which was revealed to Jacob at Bethel, 
when a solitary traveller on his way to Padan 
Aram : a mighty ladder or scale of being as- 
cending from man to the highest heaven ; a 
sublime idea of the spiritual universe proceed- 
ing from one. and built up into one glorious 
head, a world not of gross and dead materials, 
but of living spirit and flame, full of the 
adoring love and active service of God, at the 
summit of which the presence of Jehovah was 
beheld revealed" (pp. 339, 340). And this 
grand, striking, and truthful conception of the 
universe bound together and headed up in One 
supreme original of all, we have here in ma- 
terial form, consolidated. in stone, worthy in 
some measure too of the eternal vastness and 
magnificence of the subject. 

Thus then the Great Pyramid answers 
throughout to all history and all Revelation. 
The substance of both Testaments and all the 
dispensations of God toward man are here 
traced in unchanging rock, more than five 
centuries before Moses. How came these 
things into this pile, and nowhere else on earth 
but in the Bible ? Whence came this sublime 
science before the days of science, — this knowl- 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 165 

edge of all history then only in its beginnings, — 
this understanding of all sacred doctrines and 
prophecies before all other existing records of 
them ? By what marvellous eccentricities of 
chance originated these monumental prophe- 
cies, this prehistoric picturing of coming ages, 
these symbolizations of the mysterious Provi- 
dence of God toward our world for four thou- 
sand years, this fore-announcement of the end 
from the beginning, this sublime petrifaction 
of the divine word ere ever a chapter of it 
was traced in our Scriptures ? When we find 
these things in the Bible written long after- 
wards we call them inspired. What then shall 
we call them when we find them all securely 
laid up in stone hundreds and thousands of 
years anterior to that Holy Book, and now 
opened to us with superadded marvels upon 
which the Bible scarcely touches? I know 
not how others may be impressed, but I feel 
as if I would be shutting my eyes to truth, 
suppressing the force of evidence, and with- 
standing demonstration, did I not joyfully 
admit and embrace the fact that we have here 
a precious memorial from the same blessed 
Jehovah from whom we have our glorious 
Bible, erected by some chosen people whom his 
own Spirit guided^ and at the same time a most 



166 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

ancient monumental witness to all the holy 
truths and histories. 

And yet the subject is not exhausted. There 
are various other interesting matters to be 
considered, all tending to the same conclusion; 
but I cannot enter upon them now. Reluc- 
tantly, I must close again without reaching the 
end of what needs to be said in a proper presen- 
tation of the case. Only one little item more, 
which seems to belong here, will I yet notice, 
and with that I conclude this lecture. 

The Pyramid and Jerusalem. 

If this Pyramid is what it would thus seem 
to be, it would be natural to infer that it ought 
to have some connection with or reference to 
Jerusalem. All the institutes and revelations 
of God had their chief centre there for more 
than a thousand years. God made it his own 
sacred metropolis, the only one he ever had 
localized upon earth. There his only temple 
stood. There his holy law was deposited. 
Thither his people were required to come for 
the celebration of their most distinguishing 
services. There was the royal seat of his 
chosen kings. There was the sacred capitol 
of his consecrated priests, of his inspired proph- 
ets, of his holy scribes. There the glorious 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 167 

Messiah presented himself to the elect nation. 
There he died for the sins of the world. There 
he rose triumphant from the dead. There he 
ascended into heaven. There he poured out 
the Holy Ghost. There he inaugurated the 
Christian Church. There he sent forth his 
inspired apostles for the conquest of the world 
to the religion of the cross. Nay, there he is 
to appear again when he comes the second 
time as he has promised. And if the Great 
Pyramid belongs at all to the great system of 
God's redemptive interpositions it could hardly 
be wanting in some reference to that ^'city of 
the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel." 
So at least it appeared to me, and led me to 
search for the missing indications. I knew 
that the Pyramid's most distinguished cubit 
answers to the sacred cubit of Moses ; that 
the capacity measure of the Pyramid's granite 
Coffer is the same as that of the Ark of the 
Covenant ; that the sabbatic system of the 
Jews is distinctly noted in connection with the 
Queen's Chamber; and that the molten sea 
had proportions of earth-commensuration which 
also appear in the size of the Pyramid's main 
chamber. These are indeed remarkable and 
significant coincidences, but they do not give so 
direct a reference as I thought ought to exist. 



168 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

It hence occurred to me to ascertain the exact 
direction of Jerusalem from the Great Pyra- 
mid and to try whether it would fit to any of 
its interior angles. Having used two different 
maps to make sure of accuracy, the result came 
out exactly the same in both, namely, that 
three of the main inside angles of the Great 
Pyramid applied to its north side eastward, 
point directly to Jerusalem ! If a cannon-ball 
were shot from the Great Pyramid's north side 
at the precise angle eastward as that of the 
entrance passage computed with the base-line, 
or that of the main ascending passage com- 
puted with the same line, or that of the Grand 
Gallery computed with the passage to the 
Queen's Chamber, that ball, could it reach so 
far, would strike the Holy City ! 

Of itself this might be passed as of no spe- 
cial significance, but taken in connection with 
what has been developed in this lecture, the 
unexpected discovery induced a feeling as if 
the half-smothered pile with all its burden of 
centuries suddenly arose out of its sands and 
rubbish, lifted up its stony hand, and looking 
the very image of old time, pointed its heavy 
and half pendent finger to the city of Mel- 
chisedek, David, and Solomon, saying as with 
a voice out of the bottom ages, "Look over 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 169 

there! Savants of the earth, and all ye that 
inquire, go yonder ! There observe, listen, 
and wait, and ye shall know whence I am, 
and whereof I witness !" 



" And I heard a loud voice saying in Heaven, Now is come 
salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the 
power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast 
down, which accused them before our God day and night. 

" And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by 
the word of His testimony." — Key. 12 : 10, 11. 



(170) 




ANALYSIS OF TRADITIONS, OPINIONS, AND RESULTS. 

WHATEVER may be ultimately con- 
cluded respecting the origin and in- 
tent of the Great Pyramid, it is 
certainly one of the most astonish- 
ing works ever produced by man. Apart from 
all else, the coincidences between it and our 
most advanced physical sciences, together with 
the thorough correspondence between it and 
the Scriptures, as pointed out in preceding 
lectures, establishes for it a wonderfulness if 
not a sacredness unequalled by anything out- 
side the sphere of miracle. But the history 
of traditions and opinions concerning it is 
quite as remarkable as itself, and also strongly 
confirmatory of the conclusions towards which 
we have been advancing. To show this and 
to indicate some of the attendant results is 
what I propose in the present lecture. 

It is a singular fact and not witliout signifi- 
cance that whilst this oldest, largest and high- 
est edifice of stone ever piled by human hands 

( 171 ) 



172 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

has been before the eyes of the most intelligent 
portions of the race for more than four thou- 
sand years, the learned world has not yet been 
able to settle what to think of it. Strange to 
say, it has always been a puzzle and a mystery. 

The Ancient Traditions. 

The Jews up to the Saviour's time had a 
cherished tradition that this Pyramid was built 
before the flood. Josephus, the learned scribe, 
gives it as historic fact that Seth and his im- 
mediate descendants " were the inventors of 
that peculiar sort of wisdom which is con- 
cerned with the heavenly bodies and their 
order. And that their inventions might not 
be lost before they were sufficiently known, 
upon Adam's prediction that the world was to 
be destroyed, they made two pillars, the one 
of brick, the other of stone. They inscribed 
their discoveries on them both, that in case 
the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the 
flood, the pillar of stone might remain and ex- 
hibit these discoveries to mankind." He also 
adds, " Now this (pillar) remains in the land 
of Siriad (Egypt) to this day." (Jewish Antiq- 
uities, i, 2.) Such an idea so strongly rooted 
in the mind of God's chosen people is very 
noteworthy, to say the least. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 173 

The Arabians had a corresponding tradition. 
In a manuscript (preserved in the Bodleian 
Library, and translated by Dr. Sprenger) 
Abou Balkhi says, " The wise men previous 
to the flood, foreseeing an impending judgment 
from heaven, either by submersion or by fire, 
which would destroy every created thing, 
built upon the tops of the mountains in Upper 
Egypt many pyramids of stone, in order to 
have some refuge against the approaching 
calamity. Two of these buildings exceeded 
the rest in height, being four hundred cubits 
high, and as many broad, and as many long. 
They were built with large blocks of marble, 
and they were so well put together that the 
joints were scarcely perceptible. Upon the 
exterior of the building every charm and 
wonder of physic was inscribed." 

Massoudi, another Arab writer, gives the 
same even more circumstantially, and says that 
on the eastern or Great Pyramid as built by 
these ancients the heavenly spheres were in- 
scribed, "likewise the positions of the stars 
and their circles, together with the history and 
chronicles of time past, of that which is to 
come, and of every future event." 

Another Arabic fragment, claiming to be a 
translation froni an ancient Coptic papyrus, 

8* 



174 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

gives a similar account of the origin of the 
pyramids, and states that " innumerable pre- 
cious things " were treasured in these build- 
ings, including " the mysteries of science, as- 
tronomy, geometry, physic, and much useful 
knowledge." 

So, too, the famous traveller, Ibn Batuta, 
says, that " the pyramids were constructed by 
Hermes, the same person as Enoch and Edris, 
to preserve the arts and sciences and other in- 
telligence during the flood." And it was by 
reason of fanciful exaggerations of this same 
tradition that Al Mamoun made his forced 
entrance into this edifice. 

Of course these accounts cannot be accepted 
in their literal terms. They are manifestly at 
fault in various particulars. The very oldest 
of the pyramids, by its own testimony, was not 
built till six hundred years after the flood. 
Seth and Enoch therefore were not its builders, 
whatever they may have contributed indirectly 
to it. Nor was the motive for it just the one 
alleged, though perhaps involving something 
of the truth. The idea of the storajxe of ma- 
terial treasures, or of literal inscriptions on the 
walls and stones, has also been proven erro- 
neous, at least as to what now remains of the 
edifice. But where so much smoke is there is 



A MIEACLE IN STONE. 175 

apt to be some fire. Nearly every superstition 
in the world has some truth at the bottom by 
which it was brought into being, and there is 
every probability that there is here also some 
kernel of reality. The pyramids certainly 
exist, and they exist just where these tradi- 
tions locate them. The great one also proves 
Itself possessed of a marked scientific char- 
acter. Much of this science must necessarily 
have come over from antediluvian times. Six 
hundred years were too short for mankind to 
have made all the observations here recorded. 
Noah had special revelations in the science of 
measures, mechanics, and all that superior 
wisdom necessary for the building of a ship 
larger than the Great Eastern, and capable of 
weathering a wilder and wider sea than ever 
was navigated before or since. What he and 
his fathers knew before the flood he certainly 
would not leave behind when he embarked 
for a new world, which it was his conscious 
mission to people. The implements used in 
the building of the ark, the knowledge of 
their uses, and how to manufacture them to- 
gether with all that God had taught or man 
had learned on the other side of the flood, he 
took with him into the ark, and with the same 
disembarked on our side of that awful water. 



176 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

By some of his immediate descendants only a 
short time after the death, if not within the 
lifetime of his son Shem, the Great Pyramid 
was built. Of necessity, therefore, the science 
by which and to which this pyramid was fash- 
ioned, and perhaps the very tools which helped 
to build the ark, at least the knowledge of how 
to make and use such tools, came over from 
beyond the flood, and found imperishable me- 
morial in this monument. Hence, though not 
built by Seth and the Sethite antediluvian pa- 
triarchs, there was still a real connection be- 
tween it and them — between their science and 
what it embodies. 

And even what these traditions state with 
regard to the intent of the building is not 
wholly without basis in reason. It is pretty 
clear that there was an atheistic and God-de- 
fiant science before the flood the same as now, 
which would necessarily create anxiety on the 
part of the holy patriarchs to preserve and 
perpetuate the pure truth as God had given it. 
Their religious fidelity would involve this, and 
we know that they were faithful in this re- 
spect. As a false worship, an oppressive rule, 
a corrupt system of weights and measures, and 
a perverted life in general were set up by Cain 
and his wicked seed, luring the world to de- 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 177 

struction, Seth and his posterity, as they 
" continued to esteem God as the Lord of the 
universe and to have an entire regard to vir- 
tue," held to another theology, science, and 
system of things very sacred and dear to them, 
which they would be most religiously concerned 
to preserve and transmit to remotest genera- 
tions. Noah as a faithful Sethite would be 
specially anxious and diligent to inculcate and 
perpetuate that order, his faithfulness to which 
had saved him and his house when all the rest 
of mankind perished. The faithful among 
his descendants could not but share in the 
same anxieties, particularly when they saw 
mankind again relapsing into the old Cainite 
apostasy. Out of devotion to the truth of 
God, nothing could be more natural for them 
than, over against the impious Babel tower, to 
wish for some permanent memorial to God 
and the sacred wisdom and teaching which 
they had from him. Acting thus under the 
holiest of impulses, especially if aided in it by 
divine inspiration, as Noah was in the building 
of the ark, just such a modest but mighty 
science-laden pillar as the Great Pyramid 
might be anticipated as the result, and the es- 
sential import of these strange traditions thus 
be realized. 



178 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

More Modern Opinions. 

But over against all such ideas there is a 
long array of the most diverse and contradic- 
tory opinions. 

For a long time it has been customary to 
regard the pyramids as mere monuments of 
the power and folly of the monarchs by whom 
they were erected, and of the enslavement of 
their subjects. Pliny says that they were 
built for ostentation and to keep an idle people 
at work. Hales calls them " stupendous mon- 
uments of ancient ostentation and tyranny." 
F. Barham Zincke enlarged on the theory 
that " capital is bottled-up labor, convertible 
again at pleasure into labor or the produce of 
labor ;" that as there were no government 
bondsj consols, and productive stocks in which 
to invest in the time of the pyramid builders, 
they might as well invest their barren surplus- 
age in making for themselves eternal monu- 
ments, or some safe and magnificent abodes for 
their mummies, as to conceal it in barren treas- 
uries to tempt other people's covetousness ; and 
that this is the way to account for the pyra- 
mids ! Robinson refers to them as "probably 
the earliest as well as the loftiest and most 
vast of all existing works of man upon the face 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 179 

of the earth," but thinks " there is little room 
to doubt that they were erected chiefly if not 
solely from the vain pride of human pomp and 
power." Stanley speaks of them as the pro- 
duct of a silly ambition, the study of which 
can make them only ^" more definite objects of 
contempt." To such an estimate Brande has 
sufficiently answered that '' this is a very super- 
ficial and prejudiced view of the matter. The 
varying magnitude of the pyramids, the fact 
of their being scattered over a space extending 
lengthwise about seventy miles, and their ex- 
traordinary number, appear to show pretty 
conclusively that they must have been con- 
structed (in their original, at least) from a sense 
of utility and duty, and not out of caprice or 
from a vain desire to perpetuate the names or 
the celebrity of their founders." 

Some trace the pyramids to Nimrod, and 
think they were meant to be towers of secur- 
ity. But the idea of a Nimrodic origin of 
these structures is a mere surmise, wild and 
without a particle of evidence looking in that 
direction. And as retreats for men in case of 
flood or invasion, no such structures ever could 
have been thought of by any rational people, 
and none others could have built them. Des- 
titute of habitable space within, incapable in 



180 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

their perfect state of being ascended, and fur- 
nishing neither standing room nor shelter on 
their summits, they would be a poor resort for 
safety in any such emergency. 

Mandeville considered them the granaries 
built by Joseph to store up the products of 
the seven years of fatness against the succeed- 
ing seven years of famine. But nothing could 
be more ill adapted for a purpose of that sort. 
They were a thousand times more costly than 
the worth of all the corn they could hold, and 
any one of them would require more time to 
construct than double the number of years 
Joseph had to prepare for the famine. We 
also have the highest evidence now that the 
Great Pyramid, which alone was capable of 
serving in this line, was built hundreds of years 
before Joseph was born. 

Others have regarded them as astronomical 
observatories, and some have even figured an 
imaginary base around each where the stu- 
dents of the sky might sit and contemplate 
like great heavenly choirs. But that such 
amazing buildings all in one low place and in- 
capable of being ascended should have been 
erected merely to furnish sittings for a few 
star-gazers, for whom any rock or hillock would 
answer as well, is a little too much for credulity 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 181 

itself. And the modern uncovering of the 
Great Pyramid's finish at the base has effec- 
tually dispersed forever all these imaginary 
choirs. 

Others have supposed the pyramids intended 
as artificial barricades against the sands of the 
desert or the breaking forth of the Nile. But 
the eye of an observer sees at a glance the 
paltry absurdity of such an idea. The Nile 
never had any notion of breaking over this 
hill of solid rock, and if it had the pyramids 
were a vain thing to hinder either it or the 
sands of the desert. 

The Tomb Theory. 

A more extensively accepted opinion now is 
that the pyramids were all designed for royal 
sepulchres "and nothing else," which is doubt- 
less true of most of them. It is possible also 
that the idea of a tomb for Cheops may have 
mingled with the original design of the first 
and greatest of them, though there is no evi- 
dence to that effect. It may have been given 
out for a tomb for him as a mere blind to 
the nation at large, but in any event the tomb 
idea never could have been more than subor- 
dinate and incidental. 

We know now that this pyramid was built 



182 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

during the reign of Cheops, in the so-called 
Fourth Dynasty of Egyptian Kings. But it 
is nearly as certain that Cheops never was en- 
tombed in it. The account given by Herodo- 
tus is sometimes quoted in proof that he was, 
bat it is clearly a misunderstanding. That 
account says that Cheops was buried in some 
subterraneous place where " the Nile water in- 
troduced through an artificial duct surrounds 
an island." But there is not a single opening 
either in or under the Great Pyramid which is 
' ^''''not far above the highest Nile level. That 
Cheops never was entombed in the so-called 
King's Chamber is therefore certain in so far 
as what Herodotus tells about it is accepted. 
Personally he knew nothing. He only records 
what was told him. And the priest from whom 
he got his statement either was as ignorant as 
himself, or Cheops never was buried in this 
pyramid. Diodorus says positively that Cheops 
was not buried here, but in some obscure and 
unknown place. For six hundred years after 
Al Mamoun broke open 'this pyramid the 
Arab writers who tell of the feat, say not a 
word of any human remains or indications of 
sepulture being found. Shehab Eddin Amed 
Ben Yahiya,on the contrary, says that '' nothing 
was discovered as to the motive or time of its 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 183 

construction." Massoudi tells of certain find- 
ings, such as colored magic stones, columns of 
gold which nobody could move, images in 
green stone, and a cock with flaming eyes, 
which stories none but a Moslem can believe ; 
but says not a word of the finding of any man 
or any evidence of the use of the place as a 
tomb. And not less than a dozen of the best 
European authors on the subject, from Helfri- 
cus to Sir Gardiner Wilkinson's Guide Book 
to Modern Egypt, though some of them believe 
that the Great Pyramid was intended fbr # 
sepulchral monument, agree in stating that 
there is no proof that anybody ever was en- 
tombed in it.* 

* HelfricLis (1565) and Baumgarten (1594) considered the 
Great Pyramid a tomb, but held that no one was ever buried 
in it. Pietro Delia Valle (1616), Thevenot (1655), and Maillet 
(1692) give it as the common belief that no one ever was therein 
entombed. Vausleb (1664) could find no clue by which to de- 
termine why this pyramid was built. Shaw (1721) denies that 
it ever was a tomb or ever was intended to be one. Jomard 
(1801), having studied all the features of this edifice, and com- 
pared them day by day with all the facts and forms of old 
Egyptian pyramids, wrote concerning it, " Everything is mys- 
terious, I repeat it, in the construction and distribution of this 
monument, the passages oblique, horizontal, sharply bent, of 
different dimensions 1" " We are not at all enlightened either 
upon the origin or the employment, the utility or any motive 
whatever for the Grand Gallery and various passages." Sir G. 
Wilkinson says, " It may be doubted whether the body of the 
king was really deposited in the sarcophagus," as he calls it. 



184 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

But if this edifice was reared to be a royal 
sepulchre, why was it not used as such ? Yery 
curious are the explanations to which the tomb 
theorists have resorted to account for the fail- 
ure. Diodorus among the old writers, and 
Baumgarten among the more modern ones, 
say, that the people of Egypt were so enraged 
at the sufferings endured from the builders of 
the two greatest pyramids, and at their various 
violent actions, as to threaten to tear them out 
of their sepulchres, whereupon " they both 
charged their relatives at their death to inter 
them secretly in some obscure place." To this 
Colonel Yyse has conclusively answered, '^ If 
Cheops reigned fifty years, and had sufficient 
power to construct the Great Pyramid, it can 
scarcely be supposed that his body was not 
deposited in it [if so intended], particularly as 
his successor is said to have reigned fifty-six 
years, and to have erected a similar tomb for 
himself, which he could scarcely have done 
had his predecessor's tomb been violated or any 
doubt have existed about the security of his 
own." 

Helfricus and Yeryard get over the difficulty 

And Mr. St. John does not consider the Coffer a sarcophagus at 
all, and thinks the Great Pyramid never was and never was 
meant to be a tomb. 



A MIEACLE IH STONE. 185 

by assigning the Great Pyramid to that Pha- 
raoh who perished in the Red Sea while pur- 
suing the departing children of Israel. As 
that monarch's body was never recovered, they 
say of course his sepulchre never was used ! 
Still others explain that the tomb was Joseph's, 
and became vacant at the time of the Exodus, 
as his brethren took his body with them when 
they went up to the land of promise. Bat 
unfortunately for these explanations, the Great 
Pyramid was built some six hundred years 
before Moses and several hundred years before 
the vice royalty of Joseph. 

The truth is that the tomb theory does not 
fit the facts, the traditions, or any knowledge 
that we have on the subject. It is wholly 
borrowed from the numerous later pyramids, 
ambitiously and ignorantly copied after it, 
which luere intended and used for royal sepul- 
chres, but with which the Great Pyramid has 
nothing in common, save locality and general 
shape. In all the examination to which it 
has been subjected, whether in ancient or 
modern times, and in all the historic fragments 
concerning it, there is nothing whatever to 
give or to bear out the idea that its intention 
was simply that of a royal sepulchral monu- 
ment, or that can legitimately raise the tomb 



186 A MIRACLE IH STONE. 

theory any higher than a possible but very 
improbable supposition. 

Something more than a Tomb. 

It is also important in this connection to 
note that something wholly distinct from a 
mere sepulchre, or something additional and 
of much greater significance, has always 
haunted the convictions of those who have 
most profoundly studied this wonderful struc- 
ture. 

Sandys gives place to the idea of a tomb, 
but considers it a tomb built with special refer- 
ence to the symbolization of spiritual doctrines 
and hopes, together with " conceits from as- 
tronomical demonstrations." Greaves accepts 
it for a tomb, but one framed with intent to 
represent spiritual ideas. Shaw denies its 
tombic character altogether, and pronounces it 
a temple of religious mysteries. Perry admits 
that it may have served as a royal tomb, but 
had special reference to sacred beliefs. Jomard 
gave but little credit to the treasure theory of 
the East or the tomb theory of the West, and 
considered this pyramid likely to prove itself 
gifted with something of great value to the 
civilized world, particularly in the matter of 
measures and weights. Wilkinson considers 



A MIRACLE m STONE. 187 

the pyramids tombs, but is persuaded that some 
were "intended for astronomical purposes." 
Mr, St. John holds them as meant for relid- 
ous uses and symbolisms. Agnew takes them 
as tombs, but at the same time as embodiments 
of science — "emblems of the sacred sphere, 
exhibited in the most convenient architectural 
form "—a squaring of the circle outside (which 
is true only of the Great Pyramid) and a 
setting forth of various geometric, astronomic, 
and mathematical mysteries inside. Sir Isaac 
Newton considered them sources of very im- 
portant information on the subject of measures. 
Sir John Herschel was persuaded of the Great 
Pyramid's astronomical character, and found 
in it standards of measure which he urged 
England to adopt in preference to any other 
on earth. Beckett Denison admits it to be a 
highly scientific monument of metrology, 
mathematics, and astronomy. Hekekyan Bey, 
of Constantinople, in a' volume published in 
1863, ignores the idea of the granite Coffer 
being a sarcophagus, and speaks of it as " the 
king's stone," deposited in its sanctuary as a 
record of a standard of measure. Proctor 
argues that it is " highly probable " that the 
builders of the Great Pyramid sought "to rep- 
resent symbolically in the proportions of the 



188 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

building such mathematical and astronomical 
relations as they were acquainted with," and 
" may have had a quasi scientific desire to 
make a lasting record of their discoveries, and 
of the collected knowledge of their time." 
And since what has been written and pointed 
out by John Taylor, Piazzi Smyth, Sir John 
Vincent Day, Rev. T. Goodsir, Captain B. F. 
Tracy, Mr. James Simpson, Henry Mitchell, 
Dr. Alexander Mackey, Charles Casey, Rev. 
F. R. A. Glover, Hamilton Smith, J. Ralston 
Skinner, and others, within the last fifteen 
years, we can but wonder that any one at all 
read up on the subject should think of with- 
holding from this colossal monument the 
award of something vastly more than a mere 
tomb. 

That subterranean chamber cut deep into 
the solid rock would seem to indicate a tomb, 
but that chamber never was finished, and no 
one pretends that it was ever used for sepul- 
ture. It must have been meant for some other 
purpose. A vast tumulus, solidly built, with 
but few and narrow openings, terminating in 
finely polished rooms in its interior, would 
seem to agree with the idea of a grand sepul- 
chre, but when we find in it a transcendent 
geodesic plan of location, equally dividing the 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. . 189 

earth surface between the equator and the 
north pole, palpably marking the centre of all 
habitable land distribution on the globe, and 
giving the best meridional line for the zero of 
latitude for all nations, surely we ought to 
begin to think of something else. A square 
with four sloping sides built up to a point in 
the centre, would seem to be a proper device 
for an enduring royal mausoleum, and hence 
the same was long accepted in Egypt for sepul- 
chral monuments of the kings, but when we 
find in the first and original of them a perfect 
geometric figure, so framed that the four sides 
of its base bear the same proportion to its ver- 
tical height as the circumference of a circle to 
its radius, that each of its base-lines measures 
the even ten millionth part of the semi-axis 
of the earth just as many times as there are 
days in the year, that its height multiplied by 
IQo gives the mean distance between the earth 
and. its great centre of light, that its unit of 
length is the even five hundred millionth part 
of the polar diameter of the globe we inhabit, 
that its two diagonals of base measure in 
inches the precise number of years in the great 
precessional cycle, that its bulk of masonry is 
an even proportion of the weight of the earth 
itself, and that its setting and shaping are 



190 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

squared and oriented with microscopic accii- 
racy,—nothing of which is to be found in the 
scores of neighboring pyramidal tombs, — by 
what law of right reason are we to dismiss 
from our thoughts every idea but that of a 
mere sepulchre? A polished stone coffer, con- 
veniently deep, and wide, and long to accom- 
modate the body of a man, and put up in 
noble place as here, would seem to bespeak a 
royal sarcophagus, but when we find that.Coffer 
of the utmost plebeian plainness, quite dispro- 
portioned to such a purpose, devoid of all 
known covering, ornament, inscription or se- 
pulchral insignia, incapable of being placed in 
its chamber with a body in it, ir there not 
room for rational doubt that it was ever meant 
or used for a burial casket ? And when we 
perceive in it a most accurately shaped stand- 
ard of measures and proportions, its sides 
and bottom cubically identical with its internal 
space, the length of its two sides to its height 
as a circle to its diameter, its exterior volume 
just twice the dimensions of its bottom, and 
its whole measure just the fiftieth part of the 
chamber in which it was put when the edifice 
was built, we may well wonder what all such 
unparalleled scientific elaborations have to do 
with a mere tomb ! The inclined entrance 



A MIRACLE IN STONE, 191 

of a fitting size to receive a coffin, and down 
which a coffin could be conveniently slid to 
some chamber in the depths below, would be 
in keeping with a tombic intent, but when w^e 
find it terminating below in what never was a 
burial-chamber, and turned above in a sharp 
angle which no coffin such as the Coffer could 
pass, and that entrance most inconveniently 
located just to bring it into the plane of the 
meridian at an angle to point to the lower cul- 
mination of a pole star at the same time that 
the Pleiades are on the meridian above, — does 
it not become necessary to think of something 
more than a mere tomb, if not to abandon that 
idea altogether ? All the other pyramids of 
Egypt were meant for tombs, but none of them 
have any upward passages or upper chambers. 
The Grand Gallery in this edifice, so sublime 
in height, so abrupt in beginning and termina- 
tion, so different from all the other passages 
before or beyond it, so elaborately and peculi- 
arly contrived and finished in every part, is ab- 
solutely incomprehensible on the tomb theory 
or on any other, save that of a high astronom- 
ical, historical, and spiritual symbolism, having 
nothing whatever to do with the entombment 
of an Egyptian despot. And when we find in 
this edifice throughout, one great system of 



192 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

interrelated numbers, measures, weights, an- 
gles, temperatures, degrees, geometric problems, 
cosmic references, and general geodesy, which 
modern science has now read and verified from 
it, reason and truth demand of the teachers 
of mankind to cease writing that " no other 
object presented itself to the builder of the 
Great Pyramid than the preparation of his 
own tomb." 

That all these things should appear in a 
great metrologic, scientific, and symbolic struc- 
ture, meant to memorialize the most important 
features of universal nature, history, and the- 
ology, we can easily understand. But that 
they should turn up in what was never meant 
to be anything but a tomb, as Lord Yalentia, 
Shaw, Jomard, and others have submitted, is 
beyond all rational comprehension or belief. 
Mere literary , Egyptologists, whose world of 
inquiry is bounded by classic tombs, Siriadic 
sepulchres, and heathen temples, — a few sneer- 
ing scientists, who find here an impediment to 
their atheistic philosophies, — consequential 
theologues and pedants, who have reached the 
boundaries of wisdom, — and all the wise owls 
of stereotyped learning, ensconced in their 
hollo wnesses of decay, — may pooh-pooh and 
hoot, but if this pyramid was meant for a tomb 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 193 

it is the most wonderful sepulchre ever con- 
structed, the mere accidents of which are ten 
thousand-fold more magnificent in wisdom, 
interest, and worth to mankind, than all the 
tombs and Pharaohs of all the dynasties, and 
all their other works besides, — a tomb, too, to 
which there has now fortunately come a resur- 
rection morning, second only to that which 
split open the rocks of Calvary and demon- 
strated a glorious immortality for man. 

Not a Temple of Idolatry. 

Brande has expressed the opinion, that '^ if 
we had sufficient knowledge of antiquity, it 
would probably be found that the motives 
which led to the construction of the pyramids 
were, at bottom, nearly identical with those 
which led to the construction of St. Peter's 
and St. Paul's, and that they are monuments 
of religion and piety, as well as of the power 
of the Pharaohs." To whatever extent this 
was the fact with regard to the Great Pyra- 
mid, there is no evidence that it was built for 
an idol temple, whether to Athor,as suggested 
by Mr. St. John, or to Cheops, as insinuated by 
Mr. Osburn. Certain Eastern peoples may 
have made pilgrimages to it, as the Western 
people do now, or as the Queen of Sheba came 



194 A MIKACLE IN STONE. 

to hear the wisdom of Solomon. The Egyp- 
tians themselves may afterwards have accepted 
it as '^ the great temple of Suphis/' and even 
appointed priests for the celebration of his 
worship in connection with it. But that can 
be much better explained in other ways than 
\y assuming that Cheops built it either as a 
tomb for his body or as a temple for the honor 
of his soul. 

Egypt was a hotbed of idolatry from the 
beginning. Its people began by the worship 
of heroes and heavenly bodies, and ended in 
the worship of bulls, and goats, and cats, and 
crocodiles, and hawks, and beetles. Their 
false religion was in full sway when Cheops 
was born. Lepsius tells us that the whole 
land was full of temples, filled with statues of 
gods and kings, their walls within and without 
covered with colored reliefs and hieroglyphics 
in celebration of the virtues of their hero gods 
and their divine and ever faultless children. 
" Nothing, even down to the palette of a 
scribe, the style with which a lady painted her 
eyelashes, or a walking stick, was deemed too 
insignificant to be inscribed with the name of 
the owner, and a votive dedication of the ob- 
ject to some patron divinity." And yet, here 
is the Great Pyramid, the largest, finest, and 



A MIKACLE IN STONE. 195 

most wonderful edifice in all Egypt, situated 
in the midst of an endless round of tombs, 
temples, and monuments, all uniformly loaded 
down with these idolatrous emblems and in- 
scriptions, and yet in all its thirteen acres of 
masonry, in all its long avenues, Grand Gal- 
lery, and exquisite chambers, in any depart- 
ment or place whatever, there has never been 
found one ancient inscription, votive record, or 
the slightest sign or shred of Egypt's idolatry ! 
In the centre of the intensest impurity, the 
Great Pyramid stands without spot, blemish, 
or remotest taint of the surrounding flood of 
abominations, — like the incarnate Son of God, 
sinless in a world of sinners. And to hold 
such a monument to be itself a temple of idol 
worship is like calling Christ a minister of 
Beelzebub. 

Historic Fragments. 

Passing then to the historic fragments relat- 
ing to the subject, we find additional reason 
for the same conclusions. 

It is given as a fact, and specially empha- 
sized, that during the building of the Great 
Pyramid the government of Egypt was 
strangely and oppressively adverse to the estab- 
lished idolatry of the nation. Cheops stands 



196 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

charged on all sides as at that particular time 
very " arrogant towards the gods," having 
shut up the temples, interdicted the customary 
worship, cast out the images to be defiled on 
the highways, and compelled even the priests 
to labor in the quarries. Hence the indignant 
hierophant whom Herodotus consulted^ said, 
" The Egyptians so detest the memory of these 
kings that they do not much like to mention 
their names." It thus appears that Cheops 
was the positive foe and punisher of idolatry 
at the time this building was being put up, 
which fact alone wholly and forever sweeps 
away all idea of this pillar having been erected 
for any idol's temple or as a votive offering to 
any god or gods of the Egyptian Pantheon. 

It further appears from these fragments, 
along with other indications, that after the 
Great Pyramid was completed, late in his life, 
Cheops relapsed into the old Egyptian idola- 
try, became a devotee of the very worship 
which he had so sternly suppressed, and not 
only reopened the temples, but actually put 
forth a book on the gods of his country, which 
was highly esteemed for ages after.* How, 

* See Osburn's Mon. Hist, of Egypt, vol. i, p. 277. Also, 
Shuckford's Sac. and Prof. Hist., vol. i, p. 157. Also, Lenor- 
mant and Chevallier's Anc. Hist, of the East, vol. i, p. 207. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 197 

then, did it happen that during the thirty or 
more years in which the Great Pyramid was 
building, this man, born and reared in idolatry, 
and dying a dev5t of it, was the suppressor of 
its temples, the enslaver of its priests, and the 
defiler of its gods ? The answer may perhaps 
be found in another particular with which 
these fragments make us acquainted. 

During the building of the Great Pyramid 
there was a noted stranger abiding in Egypt, 
and keeping himself about the spot where the 
building was going on. The priest consulted 
by Herodotus describes him as a shepherd, to 
whom rather than to Cheops the Egyptians 
attribute^ this edifice. The precise words re- 
corded by Herodotus are, "They commonly 
call the pyramids after Philition, a shepherd 
who at that time fed his flocks about the place." 
(Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii, p. 176.) Here 
is a most remarkable and significant item of 
information,— an unknown but conspicuous 
stranger, possessed of flocks and herds, abides 
about the locality of the Great Pyramid for all 
the years it was in building, and is so related 
to the work that all Egypt for more than 
seventeen hundred years considered him its 
real originator and builder, Cheops merely 
furnishing the site, the workmen, and the 



198 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

materials. Nor was he some great professional 
architect, whom Cheops heard of and sent for 
to build him a sepulchre. The account says 
he was a shepherd — a keeper of flocks — and 
hence of an order whose business lay in the 
line of keeping sheep, but not in the line of 
building pyramids to the order of foreign 
kings. He is called "Philition'' or Philitis. 
This would seem to imply that he was one of 
a peculiar and special religious brotherhood, 
or that he was a Philistian, — one who came 
from or located in Philistia. 

There were several classes of Philistines, 
different in religion and race. The Philis- 
tines of Jewish timeg are of unsavory odor. 
But it was not so with certain earlier Philis- 
tines whom the Scriptures mention with honor 
as a people specially favored of Jehovah. 
When Israel was on the way to Canaan, in 
order to revive their drooping confidence, God 
told them of a much earlier people whom he 
had in like manner conducted up from Egypt. 
He calls them " the Caphtorims which came 
out of Caphtor" (Deut. 2 : 23). This Caph- 
tor was the very region of Egypt in which the 
Great Pyramid stands, and these Caphtorims 
from Caphtor, God elsewhere calls " the Philis- 
tines^^' whom He '^brought up from Caphtor." 



A MIHACLE IN STONE. 199 

(Amos 9 : 7.) So that not only from Herodo- 
tus and his informant, but from the Bible 
itself, we learn of Philistines once in the neigh- 
borhood of the Great Pyramid, who were the 
obiects of the Divine favor, and whom God 
brought up from thence, as he long afterwards 
brought up the children of Israel.* 

-^ It has been found very difficult to trace the origin and 
history of this early people. The Philistines of the time of 
the Judges, and of David, were a long subsequent people, who 
do not appear in the settlement of Israel under Joshua. They 
are not mentioned in any of the assaults and conquests of the 
Jews on their first arrival. Ewald considers this conclusive 
against their being inhabitants of Palestine at that time. Still, 
in the time of Abraham, we read of Philistines in Canaan. 
(Gen. 21 : 32-34.) Abraham was on friendly terms with them, 
entered into a covenant of peace with them, and "sojourned 
many days " with them. They feared and reverenced the true 
God. (Gen. 21 : 22.) Ewald agrees that their language was 
Shemitic. They were an organized and powerful people. Their 
sovereigns had the title of Ahimeleeh, a Hebrew word, meaning 
Father King, as the sovereigns of Egypt were all called Pha- 
raoh, and the sovereigns of Eome, Ccesar. The Caphtor, 
whence they came. Stark makes the Delta of Egypt, and they 
themselves some early part of the* Hycsos or shepherd kings, 
known to Egyptian history. Dr. Jamieson says, " There is 
every reason to believe the sovereigns were connected with the 
shepherd kings of Lower Egypt, and were far superior in civili- 
zation and refinement to the Canaanitish tribes around them." 
(Com. on Gen. 20 : 2.) The Phoenician traditions say they came 
from Arabia. They difl'ered from the Egyptians in dress and 
manners, as proven by the monuments ; and also in language, 
laws, and religion, as justly inferable from the Bible notices of 
them. The intent of the reference to them in Amos 9 : 7 
plainly is to show that Israel was not the only people which 



200 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

There is also another remarkable fragment 
bearing on the subject. Manetho, an Egyp- 
tian priest and scribe, is quoted by Josephus, 
and others, as saying, '^ We had formerly a 
king whose name was Timaus. In his time 
it came to pass, I know not how, that the 
Deity was displeased with us ; and there came 
up from the East in a strange manner men of 
an ignoble race, who had the confidence to 
invade our country, and easily subdued it by 
their power without a battle. And when they 
had our rulers in their hands they demolished 
the temples of the gods." (See Cory's Frag- 
ments,, p. 257.) This Timaus of Manetho is 
doubtless the same person as the Chemmes of 

had been divinely led from one country to settle in another. R, 
G. Pool considers the allusion as seeming to imply oppression 
prior to the migration, but that is not necessarily involved. 
There is no allusion to deliverance, but simply to a bringing of 
them thither by special divine direction. Abimelech in G-erar, 
and Melchisedec in Salem, would seem to be closely related as 
to religion, language, and race. They were perhaps the repre- 
sentatives of two branches of one and the same people, who 
came into Palestine at one and the same time, from one and the 
same place in Egypt, under one and the same motive, close 
about the time of the completion of the Great Pyramid. There 
certainly is nothing to disprove this conclusion. The name of 
Abimelech's general-in-chief, PAico^, though made up of Hebrew 
syllables, is not a Hebrew word, but seems to bear an Egyptian 
influence in its formation, as Pi-hahiroth, Pi-beseth, Pi-thom. 
It is most likeiy a designation of office, bearing traces of some 
connection with Egypt, but not of it. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 201 

Diodorus, the Cheops of "Herodotus, and the 
Chufu or Suphis of the monuments. The de- 
scription is peculiar, and though tinctured 
with Egypt's proverbial hatred to this class of 
shepherds, indicates a wonderful influence won 
over the king by purely peaceable means, 
which could hardly have been less than super- 
natural. Manetho himself refers it to the 
pleasure and displeasure of the Deity, and 
further adds, that this people '^ was styled 
Hycsos, that is, the shepherd kings,'' and that 
'^ some say they were Arabians."* 

Manetho wrote about three hundred years 

* Wilford, in his Asiatic Researches, vol. iii, p. 225, gives 
an extract fi'om the Hindoo records which seems to sustain, in 
some important particulars, this fragment of Manetho. The 
extract says, that one Tamo-vatsa, a child of prayer, wise and 
devout, prayed for certain successes, and that God granted his 
requests, and that he came into Egypt with a chosen company, 
entered it " without any declaration of war, and began to ad- 
minister justice among the people, to, give them a specimen of a 
good king." This Tamo-vatsa is represented in the account as 
a king of the powerful people called the Pali, shepherds, who in 
ancient times governed the whole country from the Indus to the 
mouth of the Ganges, and spread themselves, mainly by coloni- 
zation and commerce, very far through Asia, Africa, and Eu- 
rope. They colonized the coasts of the Persian Gulf, and the 
sea-coasts of Arabia, Palestine, and Africa, and were the long- 
haired people called the Berbers in North Africa. The}' are 
likewise called Falestince, which name has close affinity with 
the Philition of Herodotus. These Pali of the Hindoo records 
are plainly identical with some of the Joktanic peoples. See 
infra. 



202 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

before Christ, and 'his statements are some- 
what mixed with the history of another set of 
shepherd kings of a long-subsequent dynasty, 
but the ground of the story belongs to the 
period of CheojDS and the Great Pyramid, for 
it was then that this peaceable control was 
obtained over the reigning sovereigns by a 
shepherd prince, the temples closed, the gods 
destroyed, and the people oppressed with labor 
for the government. Manetho says that these 
" Arabians " left Egypt in large numbers, but 
instead of going to Arabia, they went up to 
'^ that country now called Judea, and there 
built a city and named it Jerusalem." 

It would thus appear that the shepherd 
prince connected with the building of the 
Great Pyramid was from Arabia, and subse- 
quently located in Palestine (Philistia), hence 
probably called " Philition " — the Philistian. 
The connection of him with the building of 
Jerusalem is very remarkable, and may seem 
to identify him with som^ Scripture character. 
Josephus quotes the passage as referring to the 
Jews, but that can hardly be the case. The 
Jews did not originally build Jerusalem. They 
did not even have possession of it till the time 
of David, about five hundred years after 
the Exodus. Jerusalem existed, and wore at 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 203 

least a part of its present name, full a thou- 
sand years before David. As early as Abra- 
ham's time it was the seat of a great king, to 
whoin Abraham himself paid reverence and 
tithes/and from whom he accepted blessing 
and communion, as "priest of the Most High 
God." With reference to his character and 
office, the Bible calls him Melchisedec, plainly 
a descriptive and not a proper name, he being 
first " king of righteousness, and after that 
also king of Salem." (Heb. 7 : 1, 2.) / 



Who was Melchisedec ? 

An illustrious personage thus breaks upon 
our notice with all the sudden grandeur of the 
Great Pyramid itself. Who he was has been 
something of a question for thousands of 
■years, — a question which perhaps cannot be 
positively answered. KohlreifF, in his Chron- 
ologia Sacra (Hamburg, 1724), as cited by 
Wolfius, identifies this personage with the pa- 
triarch Job. There is also more to sustain 
this view than any other ever presented. 

The time is the same. On general internal 

evidences. Dr. Owen (in Theologoumen. ), ^.ssigns 

•the Book of Job to the period immediately 

preceding Abraham. The length of Job's life 

places him in the pre-Abrahamic age of Serug, 



204 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

Reu, and Peleg.* He evidently lived before 
the Exodus, and before the destruction of 
Sodom and Gomorrah, for though the Book of 
Job refers to Adam, the fall, and the deluge, 
there is no allusion whatever to the awful 
disaster to the cities of the plain, the Sinaitic 
laws, or any of the miraculous events of 
Israelitish history. Such an omission in such 
a discussion, in the vicinity of these great 

* " The lives of mankind were so much shortened ere the days 
of Abraham, that though he lived but one hundred and seventy- 
five years, yet he is said to have ' died in a good old age, an 
old man, and full of years.' Peleg, who was five generations 
before Abraham, lived two hundred and thirty-nine j^ears. 
Keu, the son of Peleg, lived as many. Serug, the son of Eeu, 
lived two hundred and thirty. But the lives of their descend- 
ants were not so long. The LXX in their translation say that 
Job lived in all two hundred and forty or two hundred and 
forty-eight years* Nahor, the grandfather of Abraham, lived 
but one hundred and forty-eight years. Terah, Abraham's 
father, lived two hundred and five. Abraham lived one hun- 
dred and seventy-five, Isaac lived one hundred and eighty, and 
the lives of their children were shorter. If, therefore, Job 
lived two hundred and forty or two hundred and forty-eight 
5'ears, he must have been contemporaneous with Peleg, Keu, 
or Serug, for men's lives were not extended to so great a length 
after their days. He lived one hundred and forty years after 
his affliction, and when that affliction came he had seven sons 
and three daughters, and all his children seem to have been 
grown up. and settled in life from the beginning of his misfor- 
tunes." His age could not therefore be less than two hundred 
years at the least. See Shuckford's Sac. and Profane Hifitory., 
vol. i, p. 263, 264, who also makes Job contemporaneous with 
Suphis (Cheops). 



A MIEACLE IN STONE. 205 

occurrences, could not happen if these events 
had preceded it. Job speaks of the rock 
yielding him a spring of mineral oil (19 : 6), 
and such oilsprings there evidently were in the 
region of Sodom and Gomorrah prior to the 
great burning of those cities, and the earth 
under and about them ; but they have never 
since been found. Moses alludes to the same, 
but only by way of metaphor drawn from the 
Book of Job, for no such circumstance ever 
literally occurred in the history of Israel. 
Those oilsprings were drained and exhausted 
when those cities burned. Besides, sundry 
astronomical calculations made from notices of 
constellations contained in the Book of Job 
fix the time of the patriarch's great trial con- 
temporaneous with Melchisedec* 

* Four constellations are mentioned together in the Book of 
Job 9 : 9, and 38 : 31, 32, and in four opposite quarters of the 
heavens, Kimah^ the Pleiades in the constellation Taurus ; Kesil, 
the equinoctial nodus in Scorpio, the name being perpetuated in 
the Chaldean Kislev or November ; Mazzaroth^ Sirius or liter- 
ally Egypt's star sign ; and Ish, Aquarius, who in a manner 
revenged himself on the sons of men in the deluge. These 
four are named in their oppositions, and so in Job's day, they 
correspond to the two equinoctial and the two solstitial constel- 
lations. Kimah answers to the vernal equinox, Kesil to the 
autumnal, and Mazzaroth corresponds to the summer solstice, 
and Ish to the winter solstice. President Goguet, in his Oi^igin 
of Laws, a translation of which was published in Edinburgh, 
in 1761 (the Paris ed. of 1758), makes the calculation by the 

10 



206 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

The country of the one is also that of the 
other. Abraham met Melchisedec in Pales- 
tine, but no one claims that he was born and 
reared there. There were important Shemitic 
migrations hitherward prior to that of Abra- 
ham. f In the Ghronicon Paschale the tradition 

precessional cycle, and says that it fixes the epoch of Job's trial 
in the year 2136 B.C., which would be just thirty-four years 
after the building of the Great Pyramid. Dr. Brinkley, of 
Dublin, repeated the calculation, and brought it out somewhere 
about 2130 B.C. Dr. Hales adopts the calculation by Brinkley, 
and refers to another calculation on the same data by Ducoutant, 
in a Thesis published in Paris, in 1765, which gives the same 
within forty-two years. Such a coincidence, says Wemyss, is 
very striking, and the argument deduced from it, if well 
founded, would amount nearly to a demonstration. 

f " The primeval Canaanites were of the race of Ham, and no 
doubt originally spoke a dialect closely akin to the Egyptian, 
but it is clear that before the coming of Abraham into their 
country they had by some means become Shemitized, since all 
the Canaanitish names of the time are palpably Shemitic. 
Probably the movements from the country about the Persian 
Gulf, of which the history of Abraham furnishes an instance, 
had been in progress for some time before he quitted Ur, and 
an influx of emigrants from that quarter had made Shemitism 
already predominant in Syria and Palestine at the date of his 
arrival." — Rawlinson's ^eroo^o^ws, vol. i, p. 537. 

Ewald, in his Hist, of Israel, argues to the same effect. He 
says, " It is clear that there was here a primitive people which 
once extended over the whole land of the Jordan to the left, 
and to the Euphrates on the right, and to the Ked Sea on the 
south," and that " these people," who had very largely dis- 
placed the old Canaanites in Palestine, " were of Shemitic 
race."— Vol. i, p. 231. 

Hence, as Wilkins observes, Abraham on his arrival found 
the population consisting, at least in a very large measure, of 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 207 

is received with strong assurance, that Mel- 
chisedec, like Abraham, came from beyond the 
Jordan. Nor is there any doubt of Job's 
having come from that same mysterious 
'' East." 

In general character and position. Job and 
Melchisedec appear to be one and the same. 
Paul calls on his Jewish readers to " consider 
how great this man (Melchisedec) was," and 
of Job the sacred record is, " This man was 
the greatest of all the men of the East." Mel- 
chisedec was " priest of the Most High God," 
and of Job it is written that he sent and 
offered burnt-offerings for his sons and daugh- 
ters " continually." Melchisedec was a princely 
personage — " King of Salem ;" and all agree 
in assigning a princely rank to Job. It re- 
mains a question till now, whether he was not 
a real " king," many maintaining that he was. 

: , 

tribes with which he would have close affinities of blood and 
language. Hence, also, we have no hint in the Biblical narra- 
tive that points to any difference of language, such as we often 
have when the Jews came in contact with nations whose speech 
was really unintelligible to them, as the Egyptians (Psalm 81 : 
5, 114 : 1). On the contrary we find Abraham negotiating with 
the children of Heth, making a treaty with Abimelech, Jacob 
and his sons communing with the people of-Shechem, Israel's 
spies conversing with the inhabitants of the land, and Solomon 
corresponding with Hiram, without the slightest reference to 
the need of any interpreter between them. See Wilkins's 
Phoenicia and Israel, pp. 3-10. 



208 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

He certainly was at least a great emir. Mel- 
chisedec was a worshipper of the one true 
God, outside of the Abrahamic line, and the 
same is true of Job. From these and other 
coincidences it would seem that in Melchisedec, 
King of Salem, we do really meet the great 
patriarch of Uz, near the end of those one 
hundred and forty years of glory which suc- 
ceeded his sore affliction. 

The genealogical tables also supply a name 
which would seem to indicate the existence 
of an Arabian Job, who appears at the right 
time and in the right connections to be this 
same identical patriarch. In the tenth of 
Genesis, the sacred historian departs entirely 
from his usual method, in naming the thirteen 
sons of Joktan, as if for the special purpose 
of reaching the last in the list.* He sets down 

■*^ "The design of Moses after he has completed the narrative 
of the dispersion of the third and fourth generations of the 
descendants of Noah, and thus related the ancestry of the chief 
nations of the world, undoubtedly was to continue the line of 
Shem to that of Abraham only. All interest in the other pa- 
triarchal families appears to have ceased ; he takes no notice of 
any but that of Joktan. The family of Joktan were not the 
ancestors of the Messiah ; neither were any of the sons of this 
patriarch so peculiarly distinguished in the subsequent history 
of Israel, that the enumeration of their names only might have 
been anticipated in this genealogy. But nothing is written in 
the Holy Scriptures without an object, and in the absence of 
any other object for which Moses deviated from his plan, and 



A MIRACLE IN STONE- 209 

that name as Joh-ah, which is quite capable of 
being read fatlier-Joh, in allusion to some such 
position and career as that of the great patri- 
arch of Uz, or Melchisedec. Alterations were 
likewise made in the names of Abraham and 
Sarah in allusion to their special calling and 
office. The seventy translators from tradition, 
most of the Hebrew authors, Origen, the Coptic 
version of Job, the Greek fathers, and various 
modern writers, represent Joh-ah and Joh as 
one and the same name. In that case we 
would here have a Job, a veritable Arabian, 
a descendant of Eber (through Joktan, as 
Abraham through Peleg), and hence aL true 
Hebrew in the older and wider sense, who 
answers well to all we know either of Mel- 
chisedec or the Uzean patriarch. . 

From Job we have the most unique and in- 
dependent book in the sacred canon — the sub- 
recorded the names of the sons of Joktan only, terminating the 
list with the name of Jub-ab or Job, — I conchide that his 
design was to tell us that the Job who was the youngest son of 
Joktan was the Job who lived in the land of Uz, though he 
was not born there, and who suffered and was tempted as the 
Book of Job has recorded. The sons of Joktan were enumer- 
ated that the name of Job might be placed before the children 
of Israel as the witness to the truth of those doctrines which 
their patriarchal ancestors received, which Moses taught, and 
which the Church of God in all ages has believed." — Dr. Town- 
send's Bible, vol. i, p. 131. 



210 j A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

/ 

limest section of the inspired records, — a grand 
monument of patriarchal life, manners, and 
theology,— evidencing a knowledge of earth 
and sky, of providence and grace, and a com- 
mand of thought, sentiment, language, and 
literary power, which no mere man has ever 
equalled. In it we find a familiarity with 
writing, engraving in stone, mining, metallurgy, 
building, shipping, natural history, astronomy, 
and science in general, showing an advanced, 
organized, and exalted state of society, answer- 
ing exactly to what pertains above all to the 
sons of Joktan, whose descendants spread 
themselves from Upper Arabia to the South 
Seas, and from the Persian Gulf to the pillars 
of Hercules, tracking their course as the first 
teachers of our modern world with the greatest 
monuments that antiquity contains. . )^1 

The Primitive Civilizers. 

It has become the fashion to refer all this 
to Arabian Cushites, or a people of Hamitic 
blood, but it is one of the blunders of the 
would-be wdse. Because the name of Cush, 
usually rendered Ethiopia, became early at- 
tached to some undefined portions of Arabia, 
and because the children of Canaan originally 
settled in Palestine, therefore everything relat- 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 211 

ing to prehistoric Arabians and dwellers 
along the Mediterranean shores must needs be 
credited to the children of Ham, though it 
should leave to the Shemites scarce a place on 
earth ! Such a theory may have its day, but 
there is every evidence, biblical and secular, 
literary and monumental, that the greatest 
and mightiest population of the ancient Arabia 
was mainly, if not exclusively, of pre-Abra- 
hamic Shemitic stock. The tribes which pos- 
sessed it were mostly of the seed of Joktan, 
son of Eber, till the descendants of Abraham 
through Esau and Keturah, and the descend- 
ants of Lot, began to fill in from the north- 
west.* These Joktanites were the true Ara- 
bians, and the superior people who occupied 
the most important portions of the country, 
populated its shores, gave it their Heberic lan- 
guage, cultivated every interest of human 
society and greatness, planted their colonies in 
Eastern Africa, around the whole eastern coast 



^ " Ethnologers are now agreed," says Eawlinson, "that in 
Arabia there have been three distinct phases of colonisation — 
first, the Cushite occupation, recorded in Gen. 10 : 7 ; secondly, 
the settlement of the Joktanites, described in verses 26-30 of 
the same chapter ; and thirdly, the entrance of the Ishmaelites, 
which must have been nearly synchronous with the establish- 
ment of the Jews in Palestine. "—Rawlinson's Herodotus, voL 
i, p. 357, 



212 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

of the Mediterranean, and westward as far as 
Carthage, the Guadalquiver, and the shores of 
the Atlantic. They were 

The true ancient Erythraean stock, 
E'en that sage race who first essayed the deep, 
And wafted merchandise to courts unknown ; • 

Tlie first great founders of the world, 
Of cities, and of mighty states, and who first viewed 
The starry lights, and formed them into schemes.* 

* The names of the progenitors of these peoples, and the 
notices we have of them and their descendants, abundantly in- 
dicate all this. 

Ahmodad means the measurer^ and the Chaldee paraphrase of 
Onkelos and Jonathan attests that he was accounted the in- 
ventor of geometry, and the man who lined or measured the 
earth with lines ; hence, also a great astronomer. • 

Of Sheleph, the same paraphrase says that he led forth the 
waters of rivers, that is, instituted canals, and operated in 
water-works, perhaps the inventor of water-mills. 

Hazarmaveth gave his name to a country which still bears it, 
and was, according to tradition, a great grammarian. 

Jerah^ the fourth son of Joktan, who is called lerah in the 
ancient Arabic records and traditions, is the man from whom 
we have the name of Arabia^ the land of lerab. He gave his 
name to a province of Tehama, in which he settled, and thence 
it became extended to the country in general, which the natives 
still call the Peninsula of lerab, son of Joktan, whom the 
Arabians call Kahtan. The Jerachseans were growers of 
grains, miners, and refiners of gold. 

TJzal peopled the great country of Yemen, "famous from 
all antiquity for the happiness of its climate, its fertility, and 
riches." Its capital, Sanaa — the city of learning — vied with 
Damascus in the abundance of its fruits, and the pleasantness 
of its water. His descendants were manufacturers, merchants, 
and travelling traders, whom Ezekiel refers to as present in the 
fairs of Tyre, with possessions of bright iron, cassia, and 
calamus. 



A MIEACLE IN STONE. 213 

Nor does it argue anything against Job's 
being Joktan's son, that in the Mosaic or sub- 

DUda was the father of a great tribe of traffickers in aro* 
matics. 

Obal peopled the southern extremity of Arabia, whence 
colonies crossed the Straits of Babelmandeb, and took posses- 
sion of the bay still called after him, the Avalitic. His descend^ 
ants were great merchants, and carried on large trade in the 
best rayrrh, and other odorous drugs, also in ivory, tortoise- 
shell, tin, wheat, and wine. 

Sheha was the father of one of the tribes of the Sabeans. 
There was a tribe of Cushite-Sabeans, whose vulgar depreda- 
tions are re^rred to in the Book of Job, and also a laljer tribe 
headed by a son of Jokshan, grandson of Abraham. The Jok^ 
tame Sabeans were located near the Eed Sea, and were the 
richest of all the ancient Arabians in gold, silver, and precious 
stones Ezekiel mentions them as trading with ancient Tyre. 
They were metallurgists, lapidaries, and dealers in all rare lux<« 
uries. They were among the wisest and most intelligent, as 
well as the richest and most enterprising of ancient peoples. 
It was their queen who came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, 
and from among them, according to the Egyptian accounts, there 
came up delegations to visit and view the Great Pyramid as if 
comprehending and reverencing it as no Egyptians ever did. 

Opliir is the very word for wealth, and from the name of the 
descendants of this son of Joktan, we have our word magazine^ 
illustrative of their consequence as bankers and depositaries of 
treasures. From them Solomon got alraug trees for pillars to 
the temple, brought in the ships of Hiram, himself being of this 
same Joktanic blood and language. 

And with Job to complete the list we have here beyond 
question the most illustrious family of peoples of prehistoric 
times. 

Baldwin, in his Prehistoric Nations^ says, " It would be un- 
reasonable to deny or doubt that in ages farther back in the 
past than the beginnings of any old nation mentioned in our 



214 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

sequent editing of the Book of Job, his friends 
are said to be from countries called after the 

ancient histories, Arabia was the seat of a great and influen- 
tial civilization. This fact, so clearly indicated in the remains 
of antiquity, seems indispensable to a satisfactory solution of 
many problems that arise in the course of linguistic and ar- 
chaeological inquiry. It is now admitted that they were the first 
civilizers and builders throughout Western Asia, and they are 
traced by remains of their language, their architecture, and the 
influence of their civilization on both shores of the Mediterra- 
nean. It is apparent that no other race did so much to develop 
and spread civilization, that no other people had such an ex- 
tended a*hd successful system of colonization, that they seem to 
have monopolized the agencies and activities of commerce by 
sea and land, and that they were the lordly and ruling race of 
their time. The Arabians were the great maritime people of 
the world in ages beyond the reach of tradition. As Phoenicians 
and Southern Arabians they controlled the seas in later times, 
and they were still the chief navigators and traders on the 
Indian Ocean whenYasquez di Gama went to India around the 
Cape of Good Hope."— Pp. 66, 67. 

From Herodotus we learn that the Phoenicians came from the 
Erythraean Sea, which he explains to be the Persian Gulf, that 
having crossed over from thence they established themselves on 
the coast of Syria on the Mediterranean, and that their chief 
cities were Tyre and Sidon. McCausland says they were once 
supreme throughout the Mediterranean, and even beyond the 
pillars of Hercules. Tyre sent forth numerous colonies and 
founded flourishing commercial communities in various parts 
of the world. Her merchant princes spread their dominion 
over Cyprus and Crete and the smaller islands of the Archi- 
pelago in their vicinity. They also made settlements in Sardinia, 
Sicily, and Spain, and their vessels penetrated as far as the 
islands of Madeira to the west, and to the British Isles and the 
Baltic on the north. Traces also are found of them in India, 
Ceylon, and onward across the Pacific to the shores of the New 
World. Carthage, for a long time the rival of the Eoman 



A MIRACLE m STONE. 215 

names of some of Abraham's descendants. 
Names which did not exist for thousands of 

Aryans, was the most flourishing and last surviving of the 
Phoenician colonies. The renowned Hamilcar and Hannibal 
were members of this family, also Cadmus, who was the first 
to introduce letters into Greece, and Ninus, the just and wise 
king of Crete, who according to Tliucydides, was the first 
known founder of a maritime empire. — -McOausland's Builders 
of Bahel^ pp. 53-55. 

That the Phcenicians were Shemitic, and not Hamites, is 
proven by their language, which from the inscriptions they 
have left is manifestly and incontrovertibly the same for the 
most part and in every case with what is familiar to the 
modern student as Hebrew. See Gesenius's Scri-pturoz Linguceque 
Phcenicice Momimenta, where that distinguished scholar, as Gale 
and others have also observed, says"Omnino hoc tenendum 
est, pleraque et psene omnia cum Hebrseis convenire, sive radices 
spectas, sive verborum et formandorum et flectendorum ra- 
tionem." 

Rawlinson, in his Essays on Herodotus, Bunsen, in his Phi- 
losophy of XJn. Histo7y, and Wilkins, in his Phoenicia and 
Israel^ with every degree of confidence assert and maintain 
that the Phcenicians were Shemites, and hence of the Joktanic 
lineage. Rawlinson also remarks that these people possessed 
"a wonderful capacity for afi'ecting the spiritual condition of 
our species, by projecting into the fermenting mass of human 
thought new and strange ideas, especially those of the most 
abstract kind. Shemitic races have influenced far more than 
any others the history of the world's mental progress, and the 
principal intellectual revolutions which have taken place are 
traceable in the main to them." — Herodotus, p. 539. 

An item of evidence of Melchisedec's connection with this 
people is found in the name of the Deity given in Gen. 14 : 18, 
where the God of Melchisedec is called, not Eloah or Elohim^ 
but Eliun, which is the Phoenician designation of God used by 
Sanchoniathon, the Phoenician sage, from whom sundry frag- 
ments have been preserved. See Kenrick's Phoenicia, p. 288. 



216 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

years afterwards are in like manner given to 
the country about the Garden of Eden. (Gen. 
2 : 11-14.) 

There is no evidence that the chief river of 
Palestine bore the name Jordan-— River of 
Dan—i\\\ long after the time of Moses and 
Joshua, and yet that subsequent Jewish name 
is everywhere inserted in the antecedent rec- 
ords. And so Eliphaz might much more in- 
telligibly be said in Moses' time to have been 
from the country' then known as Teman, and 
Bildad from the country then known as Shuah, 
though they both lived and occupied those 
regions hundreds of years before Teman and 
Shuah were born. There may also have been 
an earlier Teman and Shuah whose names 
others long after them in some way inherited. 
The original name of the territory in general 
is preserved in the designation of the country 
of Job himselfj which also plainly antedates 
the Teman and Shuah descended from Abra- 
ham. From Stony Arabia to Damascus, along 
the whole east of Palestine, the country is 
called JJz, The more precise region whence 
Job came, likely was that portion of Arabia 
bordering on the east of Edom, south of Trach- 
onitis, and extending indefinitely towards the 
Euphrates. ZTa; is a Shemitic name, called 



A MIRACLE m STONE. 217 

Atos in the Arabian antiquities, and denotes 
the region where Shem himself probably lived 
and died.* Judging from chapter 8 : 8-10, 
and 12 : 12, we may readily believe that Job 
himself saw, heard, and often consulted Shem, 
and got his sacred wisdom from him. In the 
providence of God he in a measure at least, 
and perhaps by special call and ordinatiouj 
took Shem's place as the principal representa- 
tive of the patriarchal religion after Shem's 
death, as Abraham subsequently, whom Mel- 
chisedec blessed and consecrated as meant to 
fill this office after him, till he, of whom Mel- 
chisedec was the illustrious type, should come.f 

Job and Philitis. 

And as Melchisedec and Job were most 
likely one and the same person, so the same 
would seem to be the Philition of Great Pyra- 
mid notoriety. Job was the youngest of a 

* " Shem appears in his own annals as one who had left his 
native [original] land, and in the course of ages migrated west 
and south from the primitive common seat of the civilized 
stock of Central Asia, with an unceasing tendency towards 
Egypt." — BiTNSEN's Univ. Hist. 

f This would give us a most remarkable and unbroken suc- 
cession or line of sacred prophets from the foundation of the 
world — Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Job, Abraham and 
the chosen people, terminating in Jesus Christ and his Church, 
which abides to the end of this present world. 



218 A MIRACLE m STONE* 

family in which was the science, faith, and en- 
terprise for such a work, beyond all others 
then living. Job was an Arabian, and a shep- 
herd prince, just as the Egyptian fragments 
testify respecting Philitis. Job's account of 

• his own greatness, doings, and successes, de- 
picted with so much beauty in chapter 29, 
grandly harmonizes with Manetho^s story of 
the strange power of the Hicsos over the 
Egyptian rulers obtained " without a battle." 
He held idolatry to be a crime punishable by 
the authorities (chap. 31 : 26-28), just as 
Cheops was persuaded while the Great Pyra- 
mid was building. He was a true man of God, 
a public instructor in sacred things, with whom 
Jehovah communicated, and whom the Spirit 

. of God inspired."* The Almighty speaks to 

* Dr. Lee renders chap. 29 : 7, " When I went forth from 
the gate to the pulpit and prepared my seat in the broad place." 
Herder translates the same, 

*' When from my house I went to the assembly, 
And spread my carpet in the place of meeting." 

In verses 21-23, there is a further allusion to his addresses to 
the people, and the reverence and eagerness with which they 
listened to him. 

The account of the convening of " the sons of God," given 
in the first chapter, implies the existence of assemblies for wor- 
ship in those times, and the giving forth of instruction on those 
occasions. 



A MIEACLE m STONE. 219 

him in chapter 38 as if he were the identi- 
cal person who had laid the measures of the 
Great Pyramid, stretched the line's upon it, 
set its foundations in their sockets, and laid 
its topstone amid songs of exalted triumph.* 
Chap, 19 : 23-27 looks like a description of 
the high intent of the Great Pyramid, and a 
prayer that it might endure with its glorious 
freight even to the end of the world. And 
the more I study the Book of Job in the light 
of its author's identity with the mysterious 
Arabian stranger to whom the Egyptians at- 
tribute the Great Pyramid, the stronger and 

^ The spirit of the passage admirably interprets in this sense. 
The object is to convince Job of his incompetency to judge of 
and understand God, and the address runs as if the Almighty 
intended to say to him, " You laid the foundations of the great 
structure in Egypt, but where were you when I laid the founda- 
tions of the far greater pyramid of the earth ? You laid the 
measures on the pyramid in Egypt, but who laid the measures 
of the earth, and stretched the line upon it ? Yoic fastened down 
in sockets the foundations of the pyramid in Egypt, but where- 
upon are the foundations of the earth fastened ? You laid the 
pyramid's completing capstone amid songs and jubilations, but 
who laid the capstone of the earth when the celestial morning 
stars sang together, and all the heavenly sons of God shouted for 
joy?" The image is unquestionably that of the pyramid, and 
the appeal is best interpreted and tenfold intensified on the 
hypothesis that it was the builder of that pyramid who is thus 
addressed. This would also give adequate reason for the depar- 
ture from the idea of the earth's nature and position given in 
another part of the book, to take up the image of a pyramidal 
edifice in this grand passage. 



220 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

more satisfying to me becomes the likelihood 
that here is the mighty prince and preacher 
of Jehovah from whom we have that monu- 
ment. All the facts, dates, and circumstances 
amply accord with the theory that '^ Mel- 
chisedec " was Job, and that the same was the 
'^ Philition " of Herodotus. 

But whether such identity can be estab- 
lished or not, the effect in this argument is 
essentially the same. If these three names 
denote three distinct persons, they all belong 
to the time of the Great Pyramid's erection 
and to the same general community or class 
of people. They were all shepherd princes. 
They all hated idolatry, worshipped the true 
God, and fulfilled a sacred mission mostly 
before Abraham came upon the stage. And 
closely related to them were others of the 
same faith and spirit, and scarcely inferior in 
dignity. Eliphaz^ and Bildad, and Zophar, 
and Elihu, must be counted with them, and 
of them we may judge from what we read and 
hear of them from the Book of Job. From 
all these together we get an impression of the 
age and communities in which they had their 
homes, and what sort of men then lived and 
operated. What we find in them we may put 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 



221 



down as characteristic of their period, and 
from it safely reason. 

Results. 

We thus learn what is indeed of very great 
moment, to wit, that God then had his priests 
and worshippers upon earth, and that they 
were the most princely, learned, and command- 
ing people living. We thus learn that it was 
God's habit to converse with them, to direct 
their ways by special revelations, and to in- 
spire them for the utterance and recording of 
his mind, will, and purposes. We thus learn 
that they were the family kindred and blood 
relatives, the same in language and country, 
with those whence the after world obtained 
all the original elements of science and civil- 
ization. We thus learn that with them was 
the competency and every qualification, both 
natural and supernatural, for the erection of 
just such a monument of science, theology, 
and prophetic history, as we find in the Great 
Pyramid. Nay more, we thus learn that it 
was the subject of their special craving, that 
their words, wisdom, and immortal hopes^ 
should be engraven with pens of iron in im- 
perishable memorials of rock ! (Job 19 : 23- 
27.) 

10* 



222 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

No matter then whether Philitis, Melchise- 
dec and Job were one, or two, or three ; such 
mighty men of Jehovah there were in that far- 
off age. They believed in one God, and in 
holy angels, and in a devil, whose subtle de- 
pravity had inoculated all natural humanity. 
They feared sin, and sought forgiveness and 
salvation through bloody sacrifice. They 
hoped for a coming Redeemer, and for resur- 
rection through him. They treasured the 
primeval records, traditions, and revelations 
from Adam down, even the same from which 
Moses compiled when he framed his Genesis.* 

*Trom Luke 1 : 69, 70, and Acts 3 : 21, we learn that there 
were sacred prophets, inspired of God, from the earliest begin- 
nings of human history. Who were they? Adam, Seth, 
Enoch, Noah, and Shem were most eminent among the prime- 
val worthies, and most blessed and honored of God of all the 
ancients; these would then be the greatest sacred teachers, and 
the men most fitted to hand down accounts of the things they 
saw and had learned of the Lord. The indications also are 
that they did severally record and transmit what they knew and 
held as sacred, and that Moses in making up the Book of 
Genesis incorporated these sacred heirlooms into his records, 
weaving them into one narrative, condensing, adding to, but 
carefully preserving the ancient texts which he employed. 
Hence the name of the art called Mosaic work. Nor would it 
seem impossible, even at this late day, to point out what parts 
of the holy records have come from each. 

I. If we take Genesis 2 : 4, on to the end of the third chapter 
as the Book of the Prophet Adam, it at once assumes a life and 
vividness which it does not otherwise possess. Its title and 
contents show that it is a monograph. Its close would seem to 



A MIEACLE IN STONE. 223 

Special communications, teachings and impulses 
from God were also as common to these people 

indicate the time when it was written and its probable author. 
Certainly no one was so well qualified to write it as Adam him- 
self. And if he wrote anything, it must above all have been 
this. Assuming also that he, and not Moses, was the original 
narrator, we are greatly helped with regard to the allusions to 
the topography of Eden, which doubtless was much changed, 
at least in the apprehensions with which men looked upon the 
geography of the earth in the time of Moses, from what it was 
in the time of Adam. Two thousand years make a wonderful 
difference in the statements of a gazetteer, even with regard to 
the same localities. The account of the temptation and fall 
also becomes more intelligible and interesting in its simplicity 
as Adam's own statement, than as that of so remote a historian 
as Moses The name for the Deity [Jehovah Elohim), Jehovah 
God, is also peculiar to this one section of the divine word. 

II. Genesis 4: 1-26 is again a distinct monograph, the close 
seeming to indicatJthe author, who speaks of the Deity always 
under the name Jehovah. If we have anything from Seth, this 
is the section above all others that would fall to him. It is per- 
haps only the conclusion of an ampler record from that holy 
patriarch. 

III. From Enoch we certainly have at least a fragment 
which is preserved in the Epistle of Jude, beginning at verse 14. 
He uses the name of Deity the same as Seth. 

lY. From ISToah we would seem to have several books, the 
first including Gen. 5 : 1-32. Its title shows its monographic 
character, and its close indicates when and by whom it was 
written. It denotes the Deity exclusively by the one name 
(Elohini) God. 

V. A second Book of Noah would seem to be Gen. 4 : 9-22; 
7 : 7-24 ; 8 : 1-19 ; 9 : 1-27. None was so competent to write 
this account as he, and the occurrences are so wonderful that it 
could hardly be otherwise than that he would, as a preacher of 
righteousness, have solemnly recorded, this momentous account. 
Its end is indicated by a change in the name denoting the 



224 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

as to Abraham after them. (See Job 4:12,13; 
6 : 10 ; 23 : 12 ; 33 : 14-16 ; 38. : 1 ; 42 : 5-7.) 



Deity in what follows. It also adds greatly to the life char- 
acter of the narrative to take it as from the hand of him who 
was the most deeply concerned in the matter. 

VI. There is probably a third Book of Noah, in the form of 
an apocalypse of the creation work, given in Gen. 1 : 1-31 ; 
2 : 1-3. The nature of this revelation was quite apart from 
any personal experience or recollection, and could as well have 
been given to one prophet as another. The form of designating 
the Deity [Elohim) is that in the sections which appear to have 
come from Noah, and the style corresponds to those sections as 
to no other portions of the Bible. It is a complete monograph 
in itself, and can be best conceived by referring it to the 
prophet Noah. 

VII. Genesis i": 1-4, 6-8; 7 : 1-6; 8 : 20-22; 9 : 28, 29; 11 : 
1-9, shows quite a difierent style from either of the other sec- 
tions. It does not appear as a continuation of the Noachian 
narrative, but rather as fragments of an independent account, 
from which Moses has interwoven parts to give a greater ful- 
ness to the record in general. It designates the Deity [Jehovah) 
the same as Seth and Enoch, and not as either Adam or Noah, 
The author evidently lived after Noah, though personally 
familiar with the affairs attending and following the deluge. 
Therefore, it is most probable that we have these fragments 
from the patriarch Shem. 

VIII. So, Genesis 10 : 1-32 and Genesis 11 : 10-26, are plainly 
monographs, and as plainly from distinct sources. Had Moses 
been the original author of both, the one would have been 
made to correspond with the other, and we would have had one 
symmetrical statement of the genealogy, continuous and di- 
gested. The first bears internal evidence, amounting almost 
to certainty, that it was composed by Eber from his own per- 
sonal knowledge, and while living with his younger son 
Joktan. That it was written before Sodom was destroyed is 
proven by verse 19. Had it been written by Moses, he 
would not have said, " as thou goest unto Sodom and Gomorrah^ 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 225 

They had the moral and intellectual qualifica- 
tions to furnish the sublimest section of the 
holy Scriptures. There was no superior en- 
lightenment, no higher civilization, no purer 
faith, no truer science, no more intimate famil- 

a,nd Admah and Zeboim," but " as thou goest urdo the Salt Sea^'^ 
as in Deut. 3:17 and elsewhere. The genealogy in the eleventh 
chapter is also more orderly in style, and was most likely made 
up by Terah or Abraham, from information handed down from 
father to son in the family from which he was himself descended. 

It would be presumption to speak confidently on such a sub- 
ject, or to claim that this is beyond mistake the authorship of 
these several sections of the sacred word. The inspiration of 
Moses is warrant enough for all of them. But Moses nowhere 
claims to have been the original author of these records, neither 
does the Scripture assert that they were written by him. On 
the contrary, it tells us of a succession of inspired men from 
Adam's time, from whom we have nothing, except as above in- 
dicated. And as the nearer the historian lived to the events 
which he relates, the more satisfactory his account ; if there is 
reason to believe that these documents were written by the par- 
ties personally concerned, they become the more impressive, 
interesting, and easy to be understood. 

It is at least interesting to take the Bible and read the several 
portions as above assigned to Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Shem, 
etc., in order to see what life and spirit these records take on, 
when viewed in a way which is at once so probable and so 
fully in accord with other statements of the"Scriptures. 

From the texts in Luke and Acts it is clear that the Gospel 
is as old as the race, and that there never was a time when it 
was unknown and unsounded. It is traceable in the constella- 
tions of the heavens, as represented of old ; it is reflected in the 
traditions and mythologies of all ancient peoples, and in every 
age there were holy prophets who treasured the divine oracles, 
and prophesied and taught concerning the coming and achieve- 
ments of Jesus Christ, and " the restitution of all things." 



226 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

iarity with the works and purposes of God^ 
than they possessed. And a princely member 
of their mysterious and loving brotherhood it 
was who dwelt in Egypt while the Great 
Pyramid was building. Having obtained 
peaceable possession of the king's heart, he 
induced him to shut the temples, punish the 
priests, cast out the gods, and lend his royal 
co-operation for the building of a pillar to 
Jehovah of hosts, which should last to the 
end of time, and which men should open and 
read in this last evil age, and know that it is 
from Him who is about to judge the world for 
its apostasies. 

Thus then, by a chain of traditions, facts, 
and Bible testimonies, we connect the orio'in 
of the Great Pyramid with a mighty prehis- 
toric people, wholly separate from Egypt and 
its abominations, — a people among whom in- 
spiration, as true and high as that of Moses, 
wrought, and from whom we have not only the 
noblest of the- sacred books, but likewise the 
noblest edifice on earth, equally fraught with 
holy intelligence, divine truth, and inspired 
prophecy. 

What have we then in this unrivalled pillar, 
but A Miracle m Stone — a petrifaction of 
wisdom and truth, revealed of God, preserved 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 227 

among his people from the foundation of the 
world, and thus memorialized by impulse and 
aid from Him, that it might outlive the aposta- 
sies of man, and stand a^ a witness to the 
Lord Almighty when he cometh to judge the 
world, and to fulfil his promise of '^ the resti- 
tution of all things." 

Men may combat and scorn a conclusion so 
sublime. They may utterly reject it, as they 
also rejected Christ, and still reject his salvation. 
But it involves nothing impossible — -nothing 
improbable — nothing but what we might rea- 
sonably expect in view of what God did in 
ancient times, and promised to the fathers. 
It is agreeable to every item of history of 
which we can avail ourselves. It conforms to 
the remarkable traditions on the subject, which 
cannot otherwise be accounted for. Passages 
and allusions in both Testaments imply, if they 
do not positively declare, that it is a thing of 
God. And the great monument itself gives 
palpable demonstration of what cannot be 
rationally explained on any other hypothesis. 

Primeval Man. 

Materialistic and skeptical science appears 
disposed to settle upon the belief that man is 
a being who has had to educate himself up to 



228 A MITIAC1;E IK STONE. 

what he is, from a troglodyte, if not from some- 
thing much lower. Of course this goes against 
the Scriptures, and sets aside as fable and 
mythic superstition all the most essential sub- 
stance of the Scriptures. But what care such 
scientists for that? Such consequences to a 
theory they take rather as a recommendation. 
But no such philosophizing can stand before 
the Great Pyramid. If the primeval man was 
nothing but a gorilla or a troglodyte, how, in 
those far prehistoric times, could the builders 
of this mighty structure have known what 
our profoundest savants, after a score of cen- 
turies of observation and experiment, have 
been able to find out only imperfectly ? How 
could they know even to make and handle the 
tools, machines, and expedients indispensable 
to the construction of an edifice so enormous 
in dimensions, so massive in its materials, so 
exalted in its height, and so perfect in its 
workmanship, that to this day it is without a 
rival on earth ? How could they know the 
spherity, rotation, diameter, density, latitudes, 
poles, land distribution, and temperature of 
the earth, or its astronomic relations ? How 
could they solve the problem of the squaring 
of the circle, calculate the tt proportion, or de- 
termine the four cardinal points ? How could 



A MIEACLfi IN STONE. 229 

they frame charts of history and dispensations, 
true to fact in every particular for the space 
of four thousand years after their time, and 
down even to the final consummations ? How 
could they know when the Mosaic economy 
would start, how long continue, and in what 
eventuate ? How could they know when 
Christianity would be introduced, by what 
great facts and features it would be marked, 
and what would be the characteristics, career, 
and end of the Church of Christ ? How could 
they know of the grand precession al cycle, the 
length of its duration, the number of days in 
the true year, the mean distance of the sun 
from the earth, and the exact positions of. the 
stars at the time the Great Pyramid was built? 
How could they devise a standard and system 
of measures and weights, so evenly fitted to 
each other, so beneficently conformed to the 
common wants of man, and so perfectly har- 
monized with all the facts of nature ? And 
how could they know to put all these things 
on record in one single piece of masonry, with- 
out one verbal or pictorial inscription, yet 
proof against all the ravages and changes of 
time, and capable of being read and under- 
stood down to the very end of the world ? 

Yet, THESE THINGS THEY DID KNOW ! Here 

11 



230 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

they are in solid stone, displayed to all eyes, 
and challenging the scrutiny of all the savants 
of the earth. Men may sneer, but they 
cannot laugh down this mighty structure, nor 
scoff out of it the angles, proportions, meas- 
ures, nature references, and sacred correspon- 
dences which its makers gave it. Here they 
are in all their speaking significance, stubborn 
and invincible beyond all power to suppress 
them. Nothing now can blot out this record, 
and on it is written the true Scriptural dignity 
of primeval man, fashioned in the image of 
his Maker, furnished of God with everything 
requisite to his highest life on earth, and 
illumined and impelled of heaven to make 
this memorial of his sacred possessions, ere 
they should be finally lost amid the ever-in- 
creasing deterioration. It is a record whose 
antiquity none can dispute, whose authenticity 
none could corrupt, and whose readings none 
can construe without the admission of a Divine 
intervention ! 

And then what ? Why then inspiration: is a 
demonstrated reality ^^^then miracle is a tangible 
fact^ — tlien the foundations of inJideUty are 
dissolved^ — -then the Scriptures are true^ — and 
THEN OUR Christian faith and hopes are sure, 

AND CANNOT DISAPPOINT US ! 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 231 

Wondrous Providence of a wondrous God, 
to have planted in our world such a memorial 
as this, — 

Building in stone a real revelation, 

Which in Time's fulness has at last been read I 

Use of the Pyramid respecting Faith. 

It is not a substitute for our glorious Bible 
that we find in this marvellous pillar, nor a 
thing to be put on equality with the Scriptures, 
as though the written word were in any man- 
ner deficient. We throw back the imputation 
that we would propound a new religion with 
a new oracle. Our vaulting scientists have 
quite monopolized that business. The world 
resounds with the pratings of their varied 
sects and schools, agreeing in nothing but in 
negations of the supernatural. We are con- 
tent with what our holy books record. But 
when a sacrilegious rationalism would emas- 
culate them, and an Epicurean philosophy 
would trample them into, the slough, we re- 
joice and thank God that before he gave these 
books he caused this mighty pillar to be sta- 
tioned in the very path of vaunting science, 
that his assailed, abused, and oft-bewildered 
children in the extremity of the ages might 



232 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

be able to appeal to it exultantly for monu- 
mental attestation of their faith, and, amid 
the wrinkles and infirmities of failing Time, 
still have to show an unfaded memorial of 
its glorious youth. 



Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the 
Holt Ghost ; as it w aS in the beginning, is now, and ever 

SHALL BE, WORLD WITHOUT END. AMEN. 



APPENDIX, 

EXTRACTS FROM RECENT WRITERS. 

As a sequel to the preceding lectures, it may be proper, 
and may give satisfaction to many readers, to present the 
opinions and statements of some others, in their own words, 
with regard to this interesting subject. A few such ex- 
tracts are accordingly inserted here by way of appendix. 

REY. JOSEPH TAYLOR GOQDSIR, F.R.S.E. 

" I believe that several important things fully warrant us 
in maintaining that there was, when the Great Pyramid 
was builded, and that there is now, a very suflScient final 
cause for* the rearing of such a scientific symbol as it has 
the best claim to be considered. The urgency of this final 
cause may be seen to have been great at first, because in 
spite of all that had occurred at Babel, the two chief na- 
tions of earliest antiquity, Chaldea and Egypt, had deter- 
minedly adopted sabaism as their worship, either by itself 
or mixed with other superstitions ; and secondly, it is great 
in these times when a lamentable number doubt or avowedly 
disbelieve, and even laugh at, that Biblical record to which 
the world owes its present freedom from sabaism and in- 
numerable other evils, and when many would ask us to take 
Lucretius as our Bible, and a Lucretius, too, expurgated 
even of the pagan's allusion to a remote region in which 
he allowed there might be gods, but gods who cared not 
for man or his aifairs. 

" At the earlier of the two periods referred to, the Great 
Pyramid, possessing the character proven to belong to it, 

(233) 



234 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

would act as a standard protest against sabaism and other 
idolatries, and also against the injustice which invariably 
asserts predominance over the mass of mankind, when they 
enlist themselves in the service of falsehood. Certain scien- 
tific and physical conditions required that the magnificent 
protesting fabric should be placed in Egypt rather than in 
Babylonia, the seat of the undivided sway of sabaism. 
But there is no reason to believe that intercourse between 
the primeval nations was so limited that the religious and 
moral lessons intended to be taught by the chief wonder of 
the world at that time could not reach from Egypt to 
Babylon. Doubtless it would be treated by the followers 
of sabaism in Babylon just as it appears to have been by 
those in Egypt. That is to say, there would be continuance 
in sabaism in Babylon just as there was in Egypt after the 
strong hands of the royal builder, who trod under his feet 
Egyptian gods, were powerless in death. At the same time 
the Egyptians would appear to have retained and handed 
down a partial knowledge of the true character of the pyra- 
mid, until it became gradually obscured, and was at last 
quite lost. But amongst the worshippers of the Lord God 
the knowledge of its true character was long preserved, as 
would appear from the symbolic use of it made in the Book 
of Job, and elsewhere in Scripture. The traditional knowl- 
edge of it, or of the science symbolized by it, preserved 
among the people of God, was one mfeans we believe of 
saving them from that worship of the sun, moon, and 
stars which Job declared to deserve, even on its first ap- 
pearance, death at the hands of the magistrate. And I 
may state that for my own part I trace the fountain of 
physical knowledge which was opened by God for primeval 
man, and which was symbolized by the Great Pyramid, 
certain approaches made by some Greek philosophers to 
some cosmical views deemed to belong purely to modern 
times. These philosophers themselves ascribe their knowl- 
edge of these things to Eastern and Egyptian sources. 
Thus, Thales held all things to have originated in a fluid 



APPENDIX. 235 

substance ; Lucippus, the earliest Greek teacher of the 
atomic theory, held, as Aristotle tells us Pythagoras did, 
that the heavenly bodies revolve about each other, com- 
mitting the error indeed of making the sun revolve about 
the moon, but still teaching truly that the earth revolves 
about the sun, and also about its own axis, by which last 
the alternation of day and night is caused. It appears to 
me that what is true in this early astronomical view is so 
far removed from the obvious and common conception of 
the subject, as to warrant the idea that the erroneous por- 
tion of the statement was man's corruption of the pure 
primeval knowledge symbolized by the Great Pyramid, for 
this among other reasons, that it might show us in these 
last days how God supplied physical knowledge to primeval 
man that he might be warned against such monstrous 
superstitions as sabaism, and that the possession of a 
measure of such knowledge might preserve his true wor- 
shippers from many destructive errors. 

" But again, this primeval monument, after the lapse of 
more than four millenniums since its construction, is sub- 
serving at this very day most important purposes as 
respects wisdom and knowledge. The gradual disclosure 
of its scientific mysteries is a result in a great measure of 
the partial dilapidation it has suffered, especially during 
the times of the barbarous Mohammedan rule. The number 
and importance of the lessons which its disclosed mystery 
teaches is indeed very striking. Thus it testifies to the 
state of the stellar heavens at the time of its building, and 
teaches at the same time its own age. It helps also to de- 
termine the date of the flood, and to give consistency to the 
chronology and history of diluvian and post-diluvian 
times. It testifies to the importance of the exact and of 
the physical sciences — terrestrial and cosmical — not merely 
from the utilitarian, but from the religious point of view. 
It shows that some unidolatrous men possessed extraordi- 
nary knowledge in these sciences just when the whole 
world was going widely astray in the worship of sun, moon, 



236 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

and stars, and it thus seals, as with a divine impress left on 
adamantine materials, the truth tliat sound science is not 
only a handmaid but a defender of sound religion. More- 
over, it shows the symbols of just weights builded into a 
most durable repertory, as they were afterwards laid up in 
the temple of Jerusalem, at the very time when a brutal 
tyranny was gradually overspreading the idolatrous world, 
which may be said to have had its chief seats in Egypt, 
and in Babel, the capitol of Nimrod, that mighty hunter 
before the Lord — a tyranny which, instead of revering a 
justice determined scientifically according to the measures 
and weights employed by Opifex Mundi himself when he 
' fetched a compass round the universe, ' and ' weighed the 
hills in a balance,' despised all justice, and crushed the 
body of mankind down into beasts of burden. 

" Such are the things taught us at this day by the Great 
Pyramid, as there are noble men of science sufficiently 
animated with Christian truthfulness and courage man- 
fully to proclaim. We thus see a united science, righteous- 
ness, and religion testifying from the Great Pyramid with a 
reawakened mien, just as they were intended to do more 
than four thousand years ago. The oldest and noblest 
building is thus seen to be at one in testimony and in spirit 
with the oldest and noblest book. God is making that 
great name for himself, I believe, by the Great Pyramid at 
this day, which the builders of the tower of Babel sought 
to make for themselves. If there be any truth in the 
opinion of those who believe that they can point to some of 
the remains of the tower of Babel, then these now present 
only a mass of rubbish, blasted and vitrified by the wrath- 
ful fires of heaven, though the chief part of the buildings 
has undoubtedly sunk out of human sight into the soft 
alluvial soil on which they were so unwisely erected. 
Their only lesson is that of desolation wrought by a just 
divine vengeance, and the shortcomings of human ideas. 
The Great Pyramid, on the other hand, is lasting as the 
hills, even as the rocky hill on which it is so securely 



APPENDIX. 237 

founded, while the very denudations it has experienced by 
the- torrents of barbarism rather than of the elements, have 
only furthered God's plan of making it his witness to scien- 
tific truth in its relations with justice and religion in these 
last days. 

"Putting together then the various things we have in- 
sisted on-, I ask whether it is after all so wild and chimerical 
an idea that God should have stirred up, in the primeval 
age of the world, men who knew him, and who inherited or 
had imparted to them a divinely taught science to construct 
this greatest of all builded monuments ? Is not this rather 
the rational vieAV to take of it ? Here, for one thing, is a 
scientific symbol, as measurements, calculations, and rea- 
sonings of an incontrovertible kind prove it to be. This 
matter stands on its own basis. Again, Scripture contains 
a number of allusions and symbolic expressions which find 
no object so exactly and completely suitable as this con- 
fessed ' wonder ' of the ancient world. This also stands on 
its own. basis. Still further, some such sufficient reason as 
the symbolism of the Great Pyramid presents is required 
to account for the wise and sensible views of the Cosmos 
entertained by the true worshippers of God from the earliest 
ages. This is certainly a consideration of weight not easily 
cast aside. In this last consideration is also seen one part 
of the final cause for the construction of a symbol like the 
Great Pyramid shortly after the arrangement of the building 
of the tower of Babel, while another portion of this final 
cause is seen in the inestimable benefits, historical, economic, 
moral, and religious, conferred on us by the scientific char- 
acter of the Great Pyramid at this day. 

"■ Here, then, are four firmly grounded, quite independent 
reasons, which unite in supporting the beautiful and no 
less valuable theory as to the divine authorship of the Great 
Pyramid. "We can discern clearly in our subject also the 
illustration and confirmation of this grand moral truth : 
Man's ambitions and wicked designs for making a name to 
himself, as a power without God, are invariably blasted 



238 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

and end in shame, but God's works endure and testify to 
the glory of that name which will outlast the sun, moon, 
and stars." — Seven Homilies on Ethnic Inspiration^ 1871, 
pp. 59-64. 

J. EALSTO^ SKK^NER. 

" To a mind unbiassed by the prepossession of a theory, 
the assertion that the Great Pyramid of Egypt was built to 
perpetuate a series of measures, astronomical and otherwise, 
and to contain a mathematical and geometrical system of 
calculation and admeasurement, cannot be received with 
incredulity. ... 

"■As to the objects of its construction, one maybe taken 
as astronomical^ for the facts that the north base side coin- 
cides with the parallel of 30^ north latitude, and that the 
mass, as to its sides, evidenced by its corner socket lines, is 
oriented as perfectly as could be expected of human ability. 
Another may be taken as geometrical, as it was so built that 
its height should be to one-half its circumference as diameter 
to circumference of a circle. . . . 

" Hence it exhibits itself as one not only monumenting a 
method of quadrature, the elements of which we possess, 
but also a measure of the sun's time, and also the inch and 
foot values. ... 

"This measure is just that one that, with the ancients, 
seems to have stamped the whole system as natural or 
divine, ^.e., showing that man was but dealing in measures 
in some sort shadowing forth mechanical principles of con- 
struction, which it had pleased the Creator of all things to 
adopt as the law of creation. 

"The original (ideal) pyramid, whence the real pyramid 
of the Nile springs, is directly constructed from the original 
elements of relation of diameter to circumference of a 
circle. This is circular elements one. On the lines of this 
original pyramid springs another, whose elements are circle 
two. Out of the elements two another set of elements is 
obtainable, governing the interior work of the pyramid 



APPENDIX, 239 

proper; these elements are those of circle three. (Problems 
given in detail.) 

" These are the circles whence the complete pyramid, as 
to its outside and as to its inside, is fitly framed and put 
together, giving the measures of the heavens and the 
earth. 

" While the triangle represents the pyramid, the triangle 
and circle represent the elements from which the plane 
measure of the square of the base of the pyramid is 
derived. . . . 

"The author believes it to be shown that the elements 
of construction of the pyramid, and their use, agreeably to 
the intention of the architect, have been proved, and that 
these are shown to be used as the foundation of the Bible 
structure from the first chapter of Genesis to the closing 
scenes of the 'New Testament. 

" But while these elements are rational and scientific, and 
in the Bible rationally and scientifically used, let no man 
consider that with this discovery comes a cutting off of the 
spirituality of the Bible intention, or of man's relation to 
this spiritual foundation. JS'o house was ever actually 
built with tangible material until first the architectural 
design of building had been accomplished, no matter 
whether the structure was palace or hovel. So with these 
elements and numbers. They are not of man, nor are they 
of his invention. They have been revealed to him to the 
extent of his ability to realize a system which is the crea- 
tive system of the eternal God, open at all times to man for 
his advance into its knowledge, just in the measure of his 
application and brain ability, free to all as is the water we 
drink and the air we breathe. But spiritually to man the 
value of this matter is, that he can actually in contempla- 
tion bridge over all material construction of the Cosmos, 
and pass into the very thought and mind of God, to the 
extent of recognizing this system of design for cosmic crea- 
tion — yea, even before the words went forth. Let there he I 
It is the realization of the existence and mental workings 



240 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

of the Divine Mind, by means of the little primal cube and 
its circle, which to us are tangible realities, and goes to 
prove to man that his soul lives, and will continue to live, 
and thus he may take little heed for his body, which is, 
however exquisitely constructed, but a mask dulling the 
finer power of his mental whole. 

" The best and most authentic vehicle of communication 
from God to man, though many exist, is to be found in the 
Hebrew Bible, the preservation of which in its exactitudes 
can only be ascribed to a spiritual supervision. A like 
preservation of a real monument of the practical applica- 
tion of the Bible secret stands to-day on the banks of the 
Nile." — Key to the Hebrew-Egyptian Mystery in the Source 
of Measures, 1875. 

CHAELES CASEY, Esq. 

" It is unnecessary to multiply Eastern authority for the 
sacred and scientific character of the Pyramid as opposing 
and superior to the Western belief in the tombic theory, 
which, however, naturally arose and was confirmed by the 
erroneous conclusion that the use and character of the pri- 
mary pyramid might be truly predicated from the unques- 
tionable tombic pyramids of a later date. It strikes the 
writer that as far as argument goes touching the features 
claimed for the building, it would make no difference what- 
ever if a massive mural tablet had been found set in the 
masonry of the exterior, a lid found on the Coffer, a 
mummy of Cheops in it, etc., etc., as the fact would still 
remain, that the mausoleum (if you will) and sarcophagus 
(if so insisted) were designed by an architect who embodied 
in their construction all the primary truths claimed and 
verified, while still leaving them suited to secondary and 
inferior uses, just as the Royal Scytale of the Spartan kings, 
while essential to translating a decree on which hung the 
fate of nations, might serve to be used for any secondary 
purpose. 

" Therefore, the real and only question is, Whether the 



APPENDIX, 241 

Great Pyramid does or does not contain the metric features 
claimed for it ? If it does, there remains no doubt that tlie 
architect who embodied the truths exhibited must have 
been superhumanly inspired, as in the age in which he lived 
no such knowledge existed among men [except from Eeve- 
lation]. If it does not contain those metric features, de- 
monstrative refutation is within reach of line and rule, and 
the Pyramid stands to be questioned of and reply for itself 
to ail gain say ers. 

" To those who reply, ' We admit the measures, but we 
deny the conclusions drawn from them, ' the answer is, that 
if the measures, as in the instance of the base side length 
giving the length of the solar tropical year, exhibited but 
one instance of preconceived design, it might be said that 
such coincidence was accidental, but when a concatenated 
chain of design is shown of the highest order of scientific 
knowledge, the denial of such design in the mind of the 
architect is of that class which refutes itself by the absur- 
dity of its assertion. 

"■ Every dispassionate reader who has paid due attention 
to the argument advanced must be impressed with the con- 
viction that in this our day and generation, no more im- 
portant question or discovery has arisen or been made than 
the character and revelation of this Sethic monument, the 
Great Pyramid, in, but not of,4Egypt." — Philitis^ or the 
Solution of the Mystery, 1876, pp. 36, 37. 

JOHN TAYLOE. 

" Whensp many evidences of the scientific knowledge of 
the founders of the Great Pyramid present themselves, these 
facts cannot be disregarded. The difficulty may be great in 
supposing a peqple to have been in existence at that early 
period, who were capable of executing a work of so vast a 
magnitude on purely scientific principles, but is it not also 
probable, that to some individuals God may have given the 
knowledge, even at that early age of the world, for which 
we are now contending ? How could Koah have built the 



242 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

ark if he had not been divinely instructed as to its fabrica- 
tion ? And might he not have been equally instructed in 
the knowledge requisite to form the Great Pyramid ? Both 
these wonderful works are based on measure, and the latter 
structure shows a knowledge of those measures which were 
in use before the flood, as well as of those Avhich were after- 
wards established, implying therefore an acquaintance with 
antediluvian things. How could the Arabian numerals, 
and the knowledge by which they were so arranged as to 
increase tenfold in power by change of position, have been 
discovered so soon after the deluge, if the same system had 
not existed before, or if divine assistance had not been 
granted at so early a period after that event ? Even after 
these figures had once been known, the majority of man- 
kind for at least three thousand years remained ignorant of 
their use, and never again hit upon the arrangement as a 
discovery. 

"Moses, we are told, was admonished of God when he 
was about to make the Tabernacle, which was to serve as 
the example and shadow of heavenly things, ' for see, saith 
he, that thou make all things according to the pattern 
shewed to thee in the Mount.' There is an orginality in 
the character of these early revelations, which shows them 
to have had a higher source than that of man's present in- 
telligence, great as it may seem. Our modern discoveries 
are rather inferentiaJ, consisting chiefly in the application 
to things known to purposes previously unknown. Of this 
kind is the invention of the art of printing. I would not 
detract from the importance of modern discoveries, but I 
think they seem to benefit mankind less than the communi- 
cation of the art of ship-building, of the Arabian system 
of enumeration, of geometry, or the means of measuring 
the earth, and of the art of alphabetic writing : 

' So thouglits beyond their thoughts to those high bards were given.' 

" In regard to the Great Pyramid, it was the happy dis- 
covery of the two casing stones, when all were thought to 



APPENDIX. 243 

be destroyed, which at once changed conjecture into cer- 
tainty. We now probably know all that we shall ever 
know respecting, the origin and purpose of the Great Pyra- 
mid, and all that we require to know. We now find that 
all the seemingly different measures, when properly under- 
stood, are equal to each other, and mean the same thing. 
By the knowledge derived from the angle of the casing 
stones, and the length of the base of the Great Pyramid, 
all those measures of proportion which seem arbitrary in 
the Table of Constants^ are found to be no longer so. The 
measures of the earth are no less certainly established. 

" When we find in so complicated a series of figures as 
that which the measures of the Great Pyramid and of the 
earth require for their expression, round numbers present 
themselves, or such as leave no remainder, we may be sure 
we have arrived at primitive measures." — The Great Pyra- 
onid, Why was it Built ? and Who Built It ? 1864. 

PIAZZI SMYTH, F.R.S.E., F.R.A.S. 

ASTRONOMER ROYAL FOR SCOTLAND. 

" What then is, or is to be, the end or use for which the 
Great Pyramid was built ? 

" The manner of that end appears — on putting facts to- 
gether — to have been, to subserve in the fifth thousand of 
years of its existence certain preordained intentions of 
God's will in the government of this world of man. 

" I presume not to speak to any other than such parts of 
the building as have already practically developed them- 
selves. Herein, too, enough seems now to have shone forth 
to enable any one to state roundly that the message 
wherefor the Great Pyramid was built is largely of a du- 
plicate character, or thus : 

" (A) To convey a new proof to men in the present age 
as to the existence of the personal God of Sci^ture, and 
of his actual supranatural interferences in patriarchal 
times with the physical and otherwise only natural experi- 



244 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

ence of men upon earth. Or to prove in spite, and yet by 
means, of modern science, which in too many cases denies 
miracles, the actual occurrence of an ancient miracle, and 
if of one, the possibility of ail miracles recorded in the 
Scriptures. 

"(B) In fulfilment of the first prophecy of Genesis, which 
teaches, together with all the prophets, that of the seed of 
the woman without the man, a truly Divine Saviour of 
mankind was to arise and appear amongst men, in poverty, 
too, and humility ; in further fulfilment thereof, the Great 
Pyramid was to prove that precisely as that coming was a 
real historical event, and took place at a definite and long- 
preordained date, so his second coming, when he shall de- 
scend as the Lord from heaven, with the view of reigning 
over all mankind, and ruling them all with one divine 
sceptre, and under one all-just, beneficent, omnipotent 
sway, that that great event will likewise be historical, and 
will take place at a definite and also a primevally pre- 
arranged date. 

"]^ow let us look a little closer into the first of these. 

" It would seem to be, that an omniscient mind which 
foresaw in the beginning the whole history of the world 
under man (especially the widespread science knowledge of 
our day), ordained that the message, arguments, proofs of 
the Great Pyramid should not be expressed in letters of any 
written language whatever, whether living or dead, but in 
terms of scientific facts, or features amenable to nothing 
but science, i. e., a medium for the communication of ideas 
to be humanly known and interpretable only in the latter 
day. 

" Kot in the day of the Great Pyramid at all, but rather 
since the revival of learning in Europe, no pure mathemat- 
ical question has taken such extensive hold on the human 
mind as 'the squaring of the circle.' Quite right that it 
should be so, for a time at least, seeing that it is the basis 
alike of practical mathematics or high astronomy. That 
quantity under the form of k proportion, given in almost 



APPENDIX. 245 

every text-book of mathematics to more decimal places 
than there is any practical occasion for, having been ascer- 
tained for one hundred or more years, men might rest con- 
tent and go on to other subjects. But numbers of them do 
not and will not. Hardly a year passes but some new 
squarer of the circle appears, generally a self-educated man. 
But occasionally the most highly educated university math- 
ematicians also enter the field, and bring out perchance 
some new algebraic series by which a more rapid conveyance 
to the true numbers of it may be obtained. That numerical 
expression is shown on all hands and in all countries to be 
one of the most wonderful lasting characteristics and 
necessary results of the growth of science for all kinds and 
degrees of intellectual man, and in an increasing propor- 
tion as they arrive at a high state of civilization, material 
progress, and practical development. 

"Is it not then a little strange that the first aspect 
which catches the eye of a scientific man looking with sci- 
ence and power at the ancient Great Pyramid, is that its 
entire mass in its every separate particle, all goes to make 
up one grand and particular mathematical figure expressing 
the true value of tt ? If this was accident, it was a very 
rare accident, for none of the other thirty-seven known 
pyramids of Egypt contain it. But it was not accident in 
the Great Pyramid, for the minuter details of its interior, 
as shown, signally confirm the grand outlines of the ex- 
terior, and show again and again those peculiar proportions, 
both for line and area, which emphatically make the Great 
Pyramid to be, as to shape, a 7r-shaped and a 7r-memorial- 
izing pyramid, — the earliest demonstration known of the 
numerical value of that particular form of squaring the 
circle which men are still trying their hands and heads 
upon. 

"Again, in physics, as a further scientific advance on 
the foundations of pure mathematics, is there any question 
so replete with interest to all human kind as what supports 
the earth, when as Job truly remarked, it is hung from 

11* 



246 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

nothing, suspended over empty space, and yet does not fall? 
As it regularly revolves around a bright central orb, and in 
such a manner as to obtain therefrom light and heat suit- 
able to man, and day and night, what is the nature of that 
path which it so describes, and what is the distance of the 
physical life luminary round which it now revolves ? As in 
squaring the circle, so in measuring the distance of the 
earth's central sun, both learned and unlearned have been 
working at the question for twenty-three hundred years, 
and are still employing themselves upon it. Nothing that 
nations can do is thought too much to devote to this ques- 
tion of questions in physics for the future behoof of a 
world grown scientific. Yet there is the numerical expres- 
sion for that cosmical quantity nailed to the mast of the 
Great Pyramid from the earliest ages, for it is its mast or 
vertical height multiplied by its own factor, the ninth power 
of ten, which is the length all modern men are seeking, and 
struggling, and dying in order to get a tolerably close ap- 
proach to the arithmetical figure of. And this accurate 
sun distance at the Pyramid is accompanied by an exhibi- 
tion of the space travelled over during a whole circle of the 
earth's revolution, and the time in which it is performed. 

"And if from solar system quantities we turn to matters 
of our own planet world in itself alone, — does not every 
inhabitant thereof yearn to known its size, and yet was not 
that impossible to all men of all the early ages to attain 
with any exactness ? But precisely that thing which all 
mankind from the creation up to the day of Job had not 
accomplished, and had no idea or power how to set about 
to perform it, and did not make even any rude attempts in 
that direction during the following twenty-five hundred 
years — though they do know it now with tolerable accu- 
racy — was not only well known to the author of the design 
of the Great Pyramid, but was there employed as that most 
useful standard in terms of which the base side length is 
laid out, or with accurate decimal reference to the earth's 
peculiar figure, its polar compression, the amount thereof, 



APPENDIX. 247 

and the most perfect method of preserving the record for 
all men. "Who but the Lord could have done that wonder 
above man's power then to do ? Who, indeed, but the God 
of Israel could have performed this last-mentioned still 
greater wonder than any mere linear measure, so far as its 
exceeding difficulty to men even in the present scientific 
generation is concerned, and could have actually introduced 
into the King's Chamber Coffer, and the said chamber itself, 
an expression for the next most important quality after 
size, of the earthball we live upon — viz., its 'mean density,' 
besides expressing in the base diagonals of the Pyramid the 
enormous cycle of years composing the earth's disturbed 
rotation or precession period of the equinoxes ? 

" Yet, with all this amount of science brought before us 
out of the Great Pyramid, yea, even with all this quintes- 
sence of scientific results, let us not be run away with by 
the notion of some, that to teach science was the beginning 
and end for which that building was erected. . . . 

" The second part of the end wherefor the Great Pyra- 
mid was built, I have already said, appears to begin some- 
what thus, viz., to show the reality and the settled as well 
as long preordained times and seasons for each of the two 
comings of Christ, — both for that one which has been 
(eighteen hundred and seventy-seven years ago), under 
whose then commenced spiritual dispensation we are still 
living, and also for that other one in kingly glory and power 
which is yet to beam upon us. 

" When that second coming has been appointed to take 
place must be a most momentous question, and it is one to 
which 1 can only reply, that so far as the Great Pyramid 
seems to indicate at present in the Grand Gallery, the 
existing Christian dispensation must first close in some 
manner or degree, the saints be removed, and a period of 
trouble and darkness commence, for how long it is difficult 
to say, seeing that the scale of a pyramid inch to a year 
appears to change there. Yery long the time can hardly 
be, if the pyramid standards of the metrology of that uni- 



248 A MIEACLE IN STONE. 

versal kingdom, the only successful universal kingdom that 
there ever will be on earth, the kingdom of the Lord Christ, 
are already beginning to appear from out of the place of 
security where they were deposited in the beginning of the 
world." — Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid^ 1874, pp. 
463-479. 

J. G., IK EDmBURGH EYEl^mG COURANT, MAY 

9th, 1868. 

" In our opinion the idea of a Divine interposition in the 
planning and construction of the Great Pyramid, when 
closely contemplated as springing from all the facts and re- 
lations of the case, is perfectly rational and credible in the 
estimation of a rightly instructed mind. Rightly instructed 
mind, we say, for a man may be mighty in ' midden ' phil- 
osophy, and ignorant as a child in that great mother science 
of catholic and revealed theology, based on the grand design 
argument uttered by the Cosmos, on the wide testimony of 
universal history and tradition, and on that testimony of 
human nature to religion which is so inextinguishable that 
it drives the very atheistic positivists into that ineffably sad 
idolatry of humanity itself. It is on this grand testimony 
that the astronomer royal for Scotland builds, and we re- 
joice to be of one mind with him. And this, not because 
we think the truth of religion, as the grandest historical 
element, is dependent on the truth of the theory as to the 
Great Pyramid, but because the principles involved in the 
full argumentation of this theory are among the principles 
. of catholic theology according to our description of it, and 
accordingly, whether the case of the Great Pyramid be one 
to which these principles are rightly applied or not, the 
principles themselves dare not be pooh-poohed. The self- 
called ' advanced thinkers ' of the archaeological schools 
may scout them, but we hold, on the universal testimony 
of sacred and profane history, that man's story does not 
take its rise in a dunghill. Our creed in this matter is that 
blessed belief handed down in Scripture, and chanted by 



APPENDIX. 249 

the grand choir of historians and poets. The theory of the 
Pyramid, too, falls in completely with the grand strain. It 
points, on the ground of remarkable facts and coincidences, 
to the Great Pyramid as an instance of those divine inter- 
positions which are known on the testimony of Scripture, 
corroborated by tradition, to have been made as occasion 
called for them, during the infant ages of the world. 

"Moreover, the Great Pyramid, viewed in the light of 
this theory, Is seen to be a peculiar one among other ele- 
ments of prophecy, cast by Divine Providence as seed on 
the waters among the nations, to ripen in due time and 
serve most beneficent ends in the appointed season. 

' ' There existed in the religious books of the ancient Per- 
sians, undoubted prophetic and apocalyptic elements, which 
certainly contributed along with other elements in the 
Magian system to form that character which fitted Cyrus 
and his Persians to punish the grossly idolatrous Babylon- 
ians, and free God's ancient people. Again, if ever there 
w^as a clear case of divine interposition of the more ordi- 
nary kind employed for great moral and religious ends, it 
may be seen in the moral and religious revival, such as it 
was, that took its rise in pagan Greece in the person of Soc- 
rates, and all that sprang from the influence, example, 
and teaching cast into society by that noble martyr. 
Still again, it is a matter of notoriety that the Romans 
treasured in the Capitol certain Sibylline books, that can be 
shown not to have been favorable to polytheism, still less to 
pantheism, and that they not only fell in remarkably in 
certain prophetic statements with the Hebrew Scriptures, 
but influenced the conduct of leading Romans themselves. 
All these we devoutly believe to have been arranged and 
provided by God, even as we know from history that they 
formed powerful elements in forces that moved the cardinal 
events in human history. And is any one so blind as not 
to see that we live in times as momentous as any since those 
of the flood, excepting those years when the Lord of Glory 
himself dwelt upon earth ? For how many are ready to 

12* 



250 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

shout lo Psean ! in the vain hope that at last the ' vile 
superstition,' as they call it, taught in the holy Scriptures, 
and so marvellously supported, is doomed to a speedy ex- 
tinction ? Others are busily helping on this sure consum- 
mation, as they believe it, by advancing and fostering a 
strange philosophy, which (whatever lip worship some of 
its sects may pay to revelation, yet in reality) takes man up 
at first as an ape-descended animal, reared in barbarism, 
and destined in the end (so far as their philosophy can show) 
only to make manure for the soil he sprang from. 

" When forced to hearken to such degrading opinions, is 
it not a boon to be thankful for, when there is presented to 
our contemplation a most noble builded work, which proves 
how far removed from savageism its architects were, at a 
period when history and tradition alike testify that man 
and the world had just emerged from an awful catastrophe ? 
For in saying this we stand well supported, and defy any 
one to disprove on the only valid and allowable ground — 
that of universal history and catholic theology— the reason- 
ableness and credibility of God's interfering to instruct and 
guide an architect, who knew and worshipped him, in the 
rearing of a grand symbolic building, suited according to 
divine foreknowledge, at least to stagger, and suggest wiser 
views to, certain of the ' advanced thinkers, ' and rather too 
pensive a ^triori philosophers, of these latter days." — Ee- 
printed in Antiquity of Intellectual Man, 1868, pp. 476-485. 



SUPPLEMENT 



TO 



^I Miracle in Ston 



CRITICISMS, REYIET7S, AND NEW FACTS. 



By Joseph A. Seiss, D.D. 



'1 



PHILADELPHIA: PORTEE & COAXES. 



Sherman & Co., Printers. 




SUPPLEMENTAL OBSERVATIONS, 

HE rapidity with which entire edi- 
tions of my former Lectures on the 
Great Pyramid have been exhausted, 
indicates that the subject is deemed 
meritorious, and that the public mind, in some 
good degree, is disposed to consider the novel but 
daily strengthening theory of the divine source 
and sacred message of that marvellous pillar. 
It would, therefore, seem to be due that another 
Lecture should now be added, with a view to 
some further discussion of sundry points touch- 
ing the great monumental wonder, particularly 
in respect of what has transpired on the sub- 
ject since the preceding Lectures were pub- 
lished. Hence this Fourth Lecture, which I 
propose to devote to a series of observations 
of a somewhat miscellaneous character, sup- 
plementary to those which have now been be- 
fore the public since September, 1877. 



233 ) 



234 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 



A Few Testimonies. 



It is with gratitude that I refer to the nu- 
merous testimonies, publicly and privately 
given, to the fitness and worth of the presen- 
tations heretofore made. It may savor of 
personal vanity to rehearse them here, but it 
is due to the subject that some of them should 
be recited. The theory to which these efforts 
have been devoted is yet so new, the number 
of those disposed to make light of it is so 
great, the prejudices against it are so strong, 
the desire of many to know what others think 
is so reasonable, and the implications are so 
momentous, that no overweening modesty 
should keep back what may be of value to in- 
quirers, or aid in promoting an appreciative 
examination of the thrilling proposition. Cer- 
tainly, when the way to a fair hearing of the 
truth is to be cleared, all prudery should stand 
aside. 

It is, of course, of the first importance, in 
asking men to form a judgment on such a 
question as that which I have endeavored to 
propound, to know whether the facts are prop- 
erly stated and reliable. So long as there is 
doubt on that point there can be no real earn- 
estness in the matter. It is only when the 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 235 

facts are truly made out, that the obligation is 
upon the human mind to make a logical and 
true disposition of them. As to the correct- 
ness and faithfulness of the presentations made 
in my former Lectures on this subject, besides 
the references given in place, and the means 
of verification more or less within the reach 
of all, the following may be taken as of some 
worth. 

William B. Whiting, Commodore in the 
United States Navy, writing from 54 Prospect 
Avenue, Milwaukee, Wis,, February 2d, 1878, 
in connection with other things, to which I 
will subsequently refer, says : 

I have read your book, A Miracle in Stone, with profound 
attention, as well as interest. I am not able to criticize or test 
all the facts asserted therein ; but, as far as I am able, I know 
most of them to be correct. 

The Episcopal Register, Philadelphia, Oc- 
tober 13th, 1877, bears this testimony : 

We have ourselves given some attention to the subject, and 
are prepared to accept certain of the statements contained in 
the volume before us — A Miracle in Stone. The Pyramid is 
certainly a great mystery, and perhaps it was left for this age 
to solve it. The author, in the new work under notice, relates 
the general facts and scientific features. 

Prof. Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal for 
Scotland, author of a number of the most origi- 
nal and profound works on the Great Pyra- 



236 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

mid, and of all men living perhaps the best 
qualified to judge in the case, writing from 15 
Royal Terrace, Edinburgh, October 26th, 1877^ 
among other things says : 

I beg to thank you for your book, A Miracle in Stone. I 
have read now every word of it, and find that, whereas it shows 
you to have got a more thorough and practical knowledge of the 
scientific claims of the Great Pyramid to be attended to by the 
intellectual of the present age than nine hundred and ninety- 
nine out of a thousand who talk about it, it shows that unex- 
ceptionable introduction to and hold of the subject to have been 
blessed to you by a more vivid, practical, powerful sense of the 
religious message of the Great Pyramid to the present and 
coming age of the world than anything I have ever seen mani- 
fested yet in any Pyramid writing hitherto produced on either 
side of the Atlantic. 

Part of my reading yesterday was in a railway carriage, in 
foggy wet weather, but the happiness of your phrases, the just- 
ness of your conclusions, the flow of your language, but far 
above all that skill, the inexpressibly high value which you 
place on any utterance of God, whether in word or stone, as 
compared with the teachings of the schools, was one of the most 
enthusiastic episodes that I have passed through for a long 
time ; and I have noted several points, such as your expla- 
nation — most spiritual as well as symbolical — of the fifty-six 
ramp-holes in the Grand Gallery, as apparently quite new in the 
Pyramid theory, but deserving of forming a part of it hence- 
forward forever 

As testimonies to the force of the facts and 
arguments contained in the preceding Lectures, 
I take the liberty of presenting also a few ex- 
tracts from notices and reviews of them which 
have been given to the public. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 237 

From The Visitor, October 19th, 1877. 

The distinguished author regards the Great Pyramid as having 
been built by divine inspiration in the far ages of the past ; and 
if its external form, lines and angles, as well as the internal 
arrangements are correctly described, — of which there seems to 
be no reason to doubt, — then the conclusions at which the writer 
arrives appear to be logical and nearly irresistible, though not 
amounting to demonstration, as to the wonderful knowledge 
of the builders in astromony and geometry ; and, what is of 
greatest interest, goes far towards establishing the authenticity 
of the Holy Scriptures, not one book of which was written until 
many years subsequent to its erection, thus placing them be- 
yond the cavils of modern skepticism. 

The book is well suited to this age of empiric philosophy, and 
of science falsely so called, and is calculated to do much good. 
The views entertained by the author as to the identity of Mel- 
chisedec and Job may possibly be regarded as somewhat fanci- 
ful, and at variance with the opinions of commentators gener- 
ally, yet nevertheless have an air of much plausibility 

From The Churchman, January 19th, 1.878. 

We are glad to see this publication. Probably most readers 
will question the soundness of some of the author's inductions; 
but, setting aside everything of a doubtful character, there is 
enough left to startle one who comes to the subject for the first 
time. 

The same argument from design which leads us to believe 
that the world had a personal Creator, warrants the belief 
that the Great Pyramid was built to serve as a monument in 
stone, not only of the most important mathematical and astro- 
nomical truths, but also of the deeper mysteries of God's Reve- 
lation. We cannot follow the author through the various 
chapters in which he traces the great Great Pyramid's disclo- 
sures, but there is ample ground for something more than con- 
jecture in the things here related. The harmony which is 
pointed out as existing between them and, on the one hand, 
the truths of science, and, on the other, those of Holy Scrip- 
ture, cannot have been altogether the reswlt of chance. 

16 



238 A MIBACLE IN STONE. 

The work is more fascinating than any romance. Yet it 
records possibly only the beginning of yet more wonderful de- 
velopments to follow in the future. What was once only an 
object of curiosity for travellers has become the subject of most 
intense historical, scientific, and religious interest. 

Prom The Congregationalist. 

It seems that the Great Pyramid, on being subjected to a 
rigid scientific examination, without and within, yields a 
greater number and variety of facts, measurements, and other 
qualities, which, to say the least, are singularly coincidental 
with other facts, measures, and qualities, relating to religious 
history and other departments of knowledge, in a way to suggest, 
if it does not prove, how the structure may or must have been 
planned by some mind conversant with things to come ; so lead- 
ing to the conclusion that the architect of the Great Pyramid 
was God himself, who inspired its details, as he did those of the 
ark, the tabernacle, and the temple, and sealed up in its dumb 
stones, and strange passages and chambers, an attestation of the 
other revelation he was to give to the world in the written 
book. 

The whole story of this new and somewhat startling theory 
has been well told by Dr. S., who has written with the English 
authorities before him. To those fond of curious research and 
labored calculations, it presents an exceedingly interesting sub- 
ject. Nor can we refrain from saying that, after all possible 
pains have been taken to avoid an excess of fanciful interpreta- 
tion, there remains a mass of incontestable coincidences which 
is certainly very hard to explain on any theory of the edifice 
being simply a tomb. It is the grand symbol-work for the 
world. 

From The Episcopal Itecorder, January 2d, 1878. 

We have, in this book, several lectures designed to explain, 
corroborate, and establish certain main positions ; and those 
positions are startling, and challenge the most careful and 
earnest study. The lecturer seems to have read everything 
that has been written about the Great Pyramid j to have 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 239 

weighed every conjecture, opinion, and argument; to have 
consulted history and prophecy ; to have corrected science, and 
to have discovered an epitome of all natural, ethnic, and spir- 
itual knowledge. We hardly know which is the greater, the 
Pyramid or the book. To quote any striking passage as a speci- 
men of the work would require a transcription of the whole, 
lor it is all interesting, and one of the most readable and in- 
structive books of the times. We feel confident that the biblical 
student who reads it will consult it frequently, and that mate- 
rials enough will be found in its pages to furnish adequately 
any number of prize essays, lectures, and debates. If the facts 
presented are established, then the truth is confirmed that the 
builder of the Great Pyramid was the greatest and most fully 
inspired man of the human race, and his work in stone as truly 
a work of God as the pen-and-ink works of Moses and Isaiah. 

From The Lancaster Daily ^ November 28th, 1877. 

This view of the Great Pyramid is being adopted by a widen- 
ing circle of Christian believers, until even a skeptic scientist 
has dignified it as " the religion of the Pyramid !" It presents 
more intrinsic evidences of verity than things which have for 
generations commanded the devotion and aroused the enthu- 
siasm of religious credulity, and it may yet come to be an 
accepted fact in the divine economy. 

These expressions and others at hand, most 
of them from sources of the highest worth for 
intelligence and candor, sufficiently indicate 
that, in dealing with this subject, we are hand- 
ling, not only a legitimate and worthy theme, 
but one of serious importance, which chal- 
lenges the earnest attention of philosophers 
and divines, and which must be taken into 
account in order fully to construe the history 
of man or the dispensations of God. 



240 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 



Adverse Criticisms. 



But it is not hence to be inferred that no 
adverse judgments have been given upon these 
presentations. In such a case it would argue 
that misapprehensions, perversity, prejudice, 
ill-affections, and foregone conclusions had 
ceased to influence the human mind, if no op- 
posing criticisms had been called forth. 

When Prof. Smyth propounded to the Royal 
Society of Edinburgh the earth-commensurated 
standard and system of linear measure, so mar- 
vellously and fully symbolized in the Great 
Pyramid, one of the most distinguished mem- 
bers of that learned association felt himself 
moved to put a summary extinguisher upon 
the whole thing. To accomplish this he con- 
sented to lay aside all the seriousness and dig- 
nity of genuine science, and betook himself to 
the expedient of a ridiculous trick. Before the 
time at which he proposed to deliver his lec- 
ture of reply he selected a hat, the brim of 
which measured exactly one-half the length 
of the pyramid and sacred cubit, had it placed 
upon his desk by an assistant, and, when the 
proper moment arrived, proceeded with great 
gravity and unction to enact the farce of meas- 
uring it before the audience. Having with the 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 241 

utmost precision taken its dimensions, he tri- 
umphantly announced it just the twenty mil- 
lionth part of the earth's polar axis, and hence 
arguing all the high and inspired science in 
the maker of that hat, which is claimed for 
the builders of the Great Pyramid ! Of course 
the learned baronet brought down the house, 
but it was the turning of the halls of science 
into the stage of the jesting mountebank, in 
order to heap scorn and insult upon the intel- 
ligence of (in any view of the case) the greatest 
monumental builders that ever lived. And 
after the same style have some of my critics 
seen fit to proceed. Thus a popular journal, 
specially devoted to the religious edification 
of the young, as a specimen, perhaps, of its 
way of feeding Christ's lambs, prints the fol- 
lowing ; 

Many of the conclusions would be paralleled by assumption 
that all the possible combinations of the engraver's geometric 
lathe were miracuously revealed to its inventor ; all the mathe- 
matics of the sliding rule to its contriver, or the whole science 
of trigonometry to the man who first conceived a plane tri- 
angle. Given a true pyramid, and a multitude of subtle theorems 
are immediately inherent, which are indefinitely increased as 
the pyramid takes one or another limitation in shape ; but it 
does not follow that all the theorems were miraculously re- 
vealed to the architect. If so, what navigators and astronomers 
are the country boys who make their own spherical base balls ! 
And, if we make the unit of measurement only small enough, 



242 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

how many harmonies of the heaven and spheres will these halls 
typify ! 

So another journal, one which claims to 
minister to the higher spirituality in religion, 
considers the whole question adequately dis- 
posed of by this illustration : 

Take a hole in the ground, which was excavated and stoned 
round you know not when, then assume that this hole had an 
astronomical purpose, and proceed to find a time when some 
star would have shone straight into the hole ! That is the logic 
of the miracle-in-stone theory. 

And yet another religious paper, which 
loudly assumes to itself the leadership of ad- 
vanced modern thought, says : 

The symbolism which the author finds in the construction of 
the great monument, could be found by the same process in the 
new Chicago custom-house, or any other building. 

It is questionable whether such writers com- 
prehend their own language, much less the 
matter which they have undertaken so pertly 
to dispose of. For the credit of human intel- 
ligence I am glad to say that, out of more than 
one hundred published notices, these three 
have the eminent distinction to themselves of 
gravely considering the pyramid argument 
sanely met by conceits so shallow. As Sir J. 
Y. Simpson's hat trick reacted to his own dis- 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 243 

credit as a representative of science,* whilst 
the imperishable facts touching the Great 
Pyramid went on making converts to the only 
theory that can account for them ; so it will 
ever be. People are mistaken and do great 
injustice to themselves when they think to 
sneer down the sublime intellectuality of this 
hoary monument of the primeval world ; and 
these comparisons are nothing but sneers of a 
very low order. Just illustrations they are 
not. In neither of them is there the slightest 
parallel to the case we present. '^ These spher- 
ical balls" (?) 5 holes in the ground, or other 
named constructions, must first be accurately 
measured, as the Pyramid has been, and proven 
to contain the data assumed for them, or 
what is equivalent to the actual and indis- 
putable facts and formulas deduced from the 
Pyramid, before the sort of conclusion insin- 
uated can with any soberness be entertained. 

* Among the published notices of Sir James Y. Simpson's 
efforts against the Pyramid presentations, we find the follow- 
ing expressions : 

" Sir James does not seem to have proved a single objection 
to the printed theory, and his whole attack shows anything 
but a scientific spirit. It is a pity that he should waste his time 
in trying to disprove a subject which is not at all in his sphere, 
and about which he shows himself so ill-informed, having neither 
had time nor opportunity thoroughly to examine the grounds 
and foundation of the Pyramid and its teachings." 



244 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

I do not undertake argument with ridicule ; 
but, when it is put forth in the guise of logic, 
it is due that some notice should be taken of 
it. And, from the temper and spirit of these 
writers, it may be safely concluded that, when 
they have once had it demonstrated to them 
that the objects they name contain but a hun- 
dredth part of the coincidences with the great 
facts of science and sacred theology shown to 
be embodied in the Great Pyramid, every man 
of them will be loud in claiming and proclaim- 
ing the undoubted supernatural intelligence of 
the boys who made the '' spherical balls," the 
digger who shaped that hole in the ground, 
and the architect who designed the form and 
measures of Chicago's new custom-house, albeit 
these things came into being under all the 
light and intelligence of this nineteenth cen- 
tury, whilst the Great Pyramid was made and 
finished four thousand j^ears ago, at a time 
when the knowing ones of our day assert that 
men had no implements but chipped flints, 
and no dwelling-places but dens and caves of 
the earth.* 

■* One of these journals, however, gives a further specimen of 
its wit in disposing of this case, by propounding a measure-test 
of the brain-calibre of the Lecturer. The delectable morsel is 
in these words : 

'' The size of the author's intellect may be inferred from his 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 245 

The Verdict of "Not Proven." 

Several of the reviews, which have other- 
wise spoken respectfully of these Lectures, 

horror of the French metric system, because its inventors were 
atheists ! We suppose that he carefully investigates the theo- 
logical soundness of his baker and milkman." 

If this writer had given us sound reasons why we should not 
have regard to the theological soundness of all people with 
whom we have to do, we would possess at least one item of wis- 
dom from him. And if his mark and evidence of intellectual 
greatness is, to be on good terms with the theology and religion 
of the inventors of the French metre, it is no mortification to 
us to fall below his standard, inasmuch as the Word of God 
has some rather uncomplimentary expressions touching the 
wisdom of people with such affinities. Psalms 14 or 53 : 1. 

The courtly editor would have left us room to assign him a 
less limited degree of candor and fidelity to truth, had he stated 
the real points we made against the French Metrology (pp. 
58-60), instead of citing a mere incidental fact in the case, 
which, however, as we think, ought to be as little recommen- 
datory to him as to us. 

The real objections to the French metric system, which he 
admits to have originated in atheism (in which we believe the 
baking of bread and the serving of milk did not originate), may 
be summed up in the following statements, which we repeat for 
the common benefit: 

I. It is unscientific, notwithstanding its great pretensions 
to science. 

(1.) It is founded on a curved line instead of a straight one — 
follows a circumference for a measure of length instead of an 
axis or diameter. 

(2.) It is based on the particular meridian of Paris, no more 
fitting than any other meridian, and the measurement of which 
differs from that of other meridians just as much entitled to be 
taken for such a purpose, for instance the Russian, and the 
British Indian, which have been measured as well as that of Paris. 



246 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

have summed up their conclusions concerning 
them in the words " not provenS What, and 

(3.) It is inaccurate and untrue, as now admitted, by one too 
little in every 5300 parts. 

(4.) It is utterly meaningless and unharmonious with nature, 
as well in its unit as in its fractions and multiplications. 

II. It is inherently inconvenient. 

(1.) It fits to nothing, demanding a thorough reconstruction 
of ideas on an arbitrary fancy. 

(2.) It is bi-lingual in its terminology, taking its names from 
languages incapable of ready understanding, except to classical 
scholars, who have the least use for it. 

(3.) Its terms are cumbrous, long, jaw-breaking, and hard to 
be learned and remembered. 

(4.) Its unit of length is unstridable and incapable of any 
natural measurement. 

III. It is offensive in its religious and theological 
RELATIONS, exccpt to infidcls and unbelievers. 

(1.) It is the furthest from the scriptural and sacred system 
of weights and measures of all systems on earth. 

(2.) It is the national characteristic of the only nationality 
that ever officially denied the divine existence. 

(3.) It affiliates, at least in some degree, with the buying and 
selling "mark of the Beast," which is connected with very 
serious divine judgments. See Eev. 13 : 16 ; 20 : 4. 

IV. We have a better system already — a system more 
truly and significantly founded in nature, which, with certain 
slight and easy corrections, from the memorializations of the 
Great Pj^ramid — that great monument of the primeval wis- 
dom — would constitute a system of metrology the most ancient, 
the most expressive, and the most accurate, beneficent, and easy, 
that is at all known among men. 

V. The adoption of the French system by us would 

BE PRACTICALLY AND PROFOUNDLY OPPRESSIVE. It WOUld 

cause a century or more of confusion and trouble, and disable 
all our present records, and much of our literature also, to the 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 247 

how much, they severally include in this ver- 
dictj does not appear. If the meaning is, as 
seems to be intimated in one or two instances, 
that the question of identity between Job-ab 
and Job, or between Job and Melchisedec, or 
between Job, Melchisedec, and Philitis, is not 
convincingly made out, it was gratuitous to 
say so, as I had not affirmed such a proposition 
as certainly true, or as a necessary part of my 
argument. Remarkable coincidences and pos- 
sibilities were somewhat discussed touching 
this point, but with the distinct suggestion that 
nothing is rested on it except to prove that 
men of these sublime qualities and relations 
did live in the period of the Great Pyramid's 
building, and that hence it was not impossible, 
but is quite probable, that the same was built 
under the direction of "the sons of God," and, 

after generations, requiring translation into other terms to be 
understood. Even the necessary little change from old style to 
new style in the calendar still embarrasses betimes, though 
made so long ago. This change of metres would necessarily 
touch all our charts, surveys, land records, dispensatories, pre- 
scription books, and formulas of arts and manufactories, entail- 
ing upon the people expenditures, losses, and inconveniences be- 
yond estimate for generations together, for which nothing but 
this cumbrous atheistic fancy is given in return. The Anglo- 
Saxon world should hesitate long before plunging itself into 
such a turbulent sea of revolution and folly. 

If this evidences a deficiency of brain-size we are willing that 
those who think so should make the most of it. 



248 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

if so, under the tuition and guidance of God 
himself.* 

* It is to me a matter of regret, that writers on the Pyramid 
are putting it forth as a doctrine, not only that Philitis certainly 
is the same as Melchisedec, which is highly probable, but that 
Melchisedec was not a man, but " he who talked with Moses in 
the mount, who walked with Shadrach, Mesheck, and Abed- 
nego in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace of fire, viz., the Son of God,^' 
merely in the appearance of a man. This introduces a matter 
quite unnecessary to the Pyramid theory, and one so thoroughly 
questionable and extravagant in itself, that it can work only 
disadvantage to the argument. It is plausibly argued by some 
that Melchisedec, who is so mysteriously and yet so honorably 
mentioned in the Bible, was " the Son of God in human form," 
and his meeting, feeding, and blessing of Abraham, one of the 
numerous Theophanies referred to in the Scriptures. But that 
has never yet been proven. If Melchisedec was a Theophany, 
it bears none of the features of the undisputed Theophanies. 
Melchisedec is scripturally affirmed to be " like unto the Son of 
God," which would very strongly imply that he was not the 
Son of God himself, but only a type of him, and hence a man, 
as the common English version, whether with warrant or not, 
affirms that he was. It is hard to understand that *' this man " 
should carry bread and wine to Abraham, and, as an earthly 
priest-king, take from the patriarch a tenth part of the earthly 
spoils of war, and consent thus "to be ministered unto," if he 
was the Son of God, and not a human being. There is no cor- 
responding case in all the recorded Theophanies, which are 
claimed as " numerous." And if it is to be accepted that Mel- 
chisedec was " the Son of God in human form," it necessarily 
weakens, if it does not totally destroy the supposition that Mel- 
chisedec was Philitis, the shepherd prince, to whom the build- 
ing of the Pyramid is ascribed. For then we will have on 
hand a proposition so extraordinary and difficult to maintain, 
as to be quite outside of all probability, (1.) The Theopha- 
nies were all of very brief continuance ; but Melchisedec, if he 
was Philitis, must have continued and ministered on earth for 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 249 

So again, if the meaning is, that the various 
doctrines entering into a sound theology, as 

at least forty years. The Pyramid and its preliminary works 
alone occupied thirty years, during all of which time Philition, 
or Philitis, kept his flocks about the place in the ordinary habit 
and condition of a shepherd king. To these thirty years we 
must add the time required for the gathering of his company 
and the national arrangements in Egypt in order to begin the 
work, together with the time consumed in the migration to 
Palestine, the building of Jerusalem, and what interval there 
may have been from the settlement in Jerusalem to the meeting 
of Abraham. This would give us a Theophany for the building 
of a memorial in stone, at least seven times as long as Christ's 
earthly ministry for the salvation of the world, which is hardly 
credible without the strongest sort of evidence. (2.) The ordi- 
nary divine method, in all analogous cases, is the selection, 
equipment, and commissioning of real men as the agents and 
ministers of God. God did not assume a form, and appear as 
an earthly administrator, in giving us the Book of Revelation. 
He did not write it himself, but chose and inspired men for the 
purpose. Why not the same in the stone record? It was 
through the mediate ministry of Moses and Aaron that God 
wrought Israel's deliverance, and gave them their institutions. 
The work of salvation itself was not wrought but through the 
mediateness of a true human nature. The planting of the 
Church and the ministration of the Gospel and its benefits was 
and is through the agency of men. And however divine or 
great the work, it is always through some human instrumen- 
tality, employed and endowed for the purpose. Why, then, 
without positive proofs to that effect, should we risk an impor- 
tant cause by assuming and teaching that it was different in the 
case of the Pyramid? (3 ) It was just as easy, and far more 
in accord with analogy, to make the Great Pyramid everything 
'which it is now found or claimed to be, by an ordinary opera- 
tion, like that which led and influenced the prophets in their 
work, as for the Son of God to assume " the form of man," and 
to live and operate as a shepherd-king, architect and priest for 



250 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

named in the Lectures, are ^' not proven " by 
the analogies and indications described, I fully 
agree with the statement. These doctrines 
repose for their truth on quite another basis, 
and are proven from quite another source. 
The point was not to show their truth or credi- 
bility, but that accepting them as the substance 
of the Scripture Revelation, a clear and striking 
correspondence to them may be found in the 
,^,^^ Great Pyramid, j ust as we might naturally ex- 
pect if it is what I take it to be. The numer- 
ous instances which I pointed out, and which 
I know not how men can honorably get rid 
of, are not given as proofs of these doctrines ; 
but, the fact that they exist, and may be so 
vividly traced in the great monument, is 
brought out first in the interest of exegetical 
science, and second as furnishing strong reason 
to suspect that tJie Book which teaches these 
doctrines, and the Pyramid which so wonder- 
fully harmonizes with them though built so 
long in advance, have both come from one and 
the same source. 

Supposing God to have caused such a me- 
morialization of any portion of his works and 

the space of some three dozen years on earth. (4.) If such a 
thing had been, it is unaccountable that we should have no more 
record of it than appears in the brief references toMelchisedec. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 251 

purposes, as claimed for the Great Pyramid, it 
is reasonable to infer that, as in the Bible so 
here. He would have respect to the whole story 
of Revelation, which is just as easy to Him as 
any part of it. If the whole story were not 
traceable, at least in its main facts and fea- 
tures, the presumption would be against the 
idea of His having been concerned in it. And 
so, on the other hand, when it is shown that 
the whole story is so truly and fully indicated 
in the Pyramid's symbolisms, the presumption 
fairly is that the Pyramid is from the same 
intelligence from which we have the Scrip- 
tures. 

But the meaning of these reviews rather 
seems to be, that the whole presentation, as 
respects the new theory concerning the Great 
Pyramid, is '^not proven." This presents a 
serious judgment for us, as no one wishes to 
entertain for truth what has no reasonable 
foundation. The question then comes up, 
What is sufficient proof in a case like this ? 
No Christian will say that the thing is impos- 
sihle ; and considering the circumstances, and 
how God aided and directed in other construc- 
tions of human handiwork, no one can reason- 
ably say that it is improbable. It therefore 
depends very much upon the particular moral 



252 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

condition of the mind that undertakes to de- 
cide upon the matter, as to what is adequate 
proof and what is not. To the Atheist, the 
evidences of the existence of a personal, al- 
mighty, and intelligent God, are deemed in- 
adequate and unconvincing. To the Deist, 
the evidences of the inspiration of the Holy 
Scriptures are rejected as inadequate. To the 
Pelagian, the evidences of the co-equal and co- 
eternal three-oneness of the Deity are set aside 
as inadequate. To the Jew, the evidences of 
the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth, and of 
the plan of salvation through him, are scorned 
as utterly inadequate. To a Socinian, the 
evidences of the doctrine of atonement by the 
blood of Christ,^ — to the Universalist, the evi- 
dences of future and eternal punishment, — and 
to many, the evidences of a life to come and 
the immortality of the soul, — are all deemed 
inadequate. On all these and other points, 
great bodies of men, who make every claim to 
intelligence, candor, and sobriety, write down 
as their ultimate conclusion, ''-not proven." 
And yet, every true and orthodox Christian 
holds each and every one of these things am- 
ply made out, with a clearness and certainty 
on which he rests with unshaken confidence 
for this world and the next. The answer he 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 253 

makes to all classes of these unbelievers is, 
that* they do not start with right principles, 
that they are not open to the force of truth 
and fair argument, that they decide on imper- 
fect and unreasonable grounds, that they wish 
to believe as they do, and hence are not willing 
to take in anything else. 

It is a saddening truth, but still a truth, 
that the source of the skepticism of the unbe- 
lieving, however honest they may seem, is not 
in the inadequacy of the evidence on which to 
build a true faith, but in some traditional prej- 
udice, or personal perverseness, or unfaithful- 
ness of examination, or unreasonable standard 
of proof, or unconquerable averseness to the 
truth, or unwarrantable pride of position or 
estate, that stops the ears and beclouds the 
judgment. The everlasting challenge of the 
Saviour, on which he stakes the whole credi- 
bility of the Gospel, is, '• If any man will do 
the will of the Father, he shall know of the 
doctrine, whether it be of God." (John 7:17.) 
So that we are fully warranted, by the unmis- 
takable word of the great Author of salvation, 
in saying, that the true and only reason why 
people cannot find the convincing evidences of 
all that enters into the make-up of the proper 
Christian religion is, that they are morally un- 

17 



254 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

willing to test it by those methods of proof on 
which it proposes to demonstrate its claims. 
And if such are the causes that lead so many 
to regard the evidences of our holy religion, in 
whole or in part, inadequate, it is not to be won- 
dered that many, from corresponding causes, 
should withhold belief in the case before us. 
The skepticism of unbelievers is not held good 
by Christians as against the divine authority 
of Christianity, or any of its doctrines; and as 
the verdict of ^'not proven" does not ade- 
quately settle the question in that case, so 
neither does it adequately settle it in this. 

Were it shown us wherein the argument for 
the supernatural origin of the Great Pyramid 
fails in method or degree from that on which 
we repose our common faith as Christians, this 
verdict of " not proven " could be more intelli- 
gently considered. But no one yet has se- 
riously attempted to point out any such defect. 
On the contrary, the editor of The Churchman^ 
A^ewing the matter with the keen scrutiny of 
a broad and penetrating consideration, and 
with the manly dignity of one who feels the 
far-reaching character of the problem and of 
the manner of dealing with it, gives it out as 
his conviction, which at the same time comes 
as a note of solemn warning to all believers., 



A MIRACLE IN STONE, 255 

that 'Hhe same argument from design which 
leads us to believe that the world had a personal 
Creator^ warrants the belief that the Great Pyra- 
mid was built to serve as a monument in stone, 
not only of the most important mathematical and 
astronomical tridhs^ but also of the deeper mys- 
teries of God's Eevelation." In so far then as 
this judgment is correct, the dissenter has his 
only logical outcome in Atheism. 

Something is Proyen. 

But this verdict of " not proven," which a 
few have seen fit to return as the only answer 
needing to be made to the presentations re- 
specting the Great Pyramid, not only fails on 
the one hand to specify what it holds to be 
''not proven," but it assumes on the other that 
nothing is proven of any worth to science or 
faith, or requiring to be seriously considered. 
It is thus either mere blind assertion or a very 
unworthy begging of the question. Some things 
have been proved as fully and as surely as any- 
thing can be. They are also very important 
things, bearing on all the questions respecting 
humanity and revelation, and involving mo- 
mentous implications for philosophy, history, 
and religion. And whether they necessitate 



256 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

the precise conclusion that the Great Pyramid 
was built under the direction of some inspired 
man of God or not, the facts remain clear and 
unalterable, and nothing is true or sound in 
human thinking which cannot be construed 
with them. Investigators may, betimes, have 
been a little too quick and extreme in their 
interpretations, and some may here and there 
have shown slight signs of partial intoxication 
amid the wonders of discovery on discovery 
which have rewarded their endeavors ; but, 
with due allowance for everything of this sort, 
there remains a great mass oi facts , hard and 
solid as the rock on which the vast structure 
stands, from which the answer of ^^not proven" 
must rebound very damagingly upon those 
who propose to abide by it. 

It is needless to recapitulate here the scien- 
tific data already described (though with some 
disabling brevity) in the preceding Lectures. 
All that is there stated respecting the geomet- 
rical, cosmical, astronomical, metrical, geo- 
graphical, and mechanical features of the Great 
Pyramid, and very, very much more, has been 
amply tested by the very best scientific ability, 
and may be seen fully set out in all their in- 
vincible wonderfulness in the more thorough 
works which are happily multiplying on this 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 257 

subject. The world may safely be challenged 
to refute these grand facts, whether they be 
put down as coincidences or aught else. They 
are proven, and they must stand, whatever 
men may make of them. And every attack 
upon them thus far has only served to bring 
them out with more clearness, and with ever- 
increasing recruits for their defence. 

There can be no question now as to the fact 
that the form and relative dimensions of the 
Great Pyramid exhibit practically the circle 
squared, or that it is built to the mathematical 
proportion of a diameter to a sphere. The 
length of its four sides is the exact equal of a 
circle drawn with the Pyramid's vertical height 
for a radius (see Chart). In other words, it 
is an architectural embodiment, in a solid stone 
edifice, of the mathematical tt, the value of 
which, in determining the relation of a sphere 
to its diameter, is 3.14159 plus a slight incom- 
mensurable fraction. When this was first dis- 
covered, and announced as something very sig- 
nificant, the answer was that the measures 
were not sufficiently attested to warrant the 
acceptance of it as a fact ; and that, if it had 
this appearance, it w^as a mere coincidence or 
accident from which nothing can be argued. 
Since then the measurements have been more 



258 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

narrowly and fully determined, and the va- 
rious commensurations, within and without, 
more exactly ascertained ; but every fresh ad- 
dition to our knowledge on the subject has 
contributed to the overwhelming demonstra- 
tion that the Pyramid is really a memorial of 
the 7t proportion, and that this is the grand 
key to much of its import. What is solidly 
given in the external dimensions meets us 
again wherever we go in the interior.* 



* Thus, if we take the length of the King's Chamber, 412.132 
inches, and let it express the diameter of a circle, then compute 
the area of that circle, and throw that area into a square, it will 
give the exact size of the Pyramid's base, and just as many 
Pyramid cubits to each side as there are days in a year. 

Again, take the same length as the side of a square, find its 
area, throw it into a circular shape, and the radius of that circle 
will give the number of cubits in the Pyramid's vertical height. 

Again, take the circuit of the north or south wall of the 
King's Chamber in the entirety of the granite, divide it by that 
chamber's length, and the result is tt. 

Thus, by substituting areas for circumferences, that oblong, 
rectangular room, through the operations of w, answers intel- 
lectually to the square-based and five-pointed exterior memo- 
rialization of the same proportion. And in the Antechamber, 
between the Grand Gallery and the King's Chamber, the same 
use and reference to the tt proportion is to be traced. 

Thus the east wainscoating of the Antechamber is cut down 
to the extent of half the width of the King's Chamber, equal to 
the length of the granite in the Antechamber floor, and to the 
length of the side of a square whose area is equal to that of a 
circle drawn with the whole length (granite and limestone) of 
the floor for a radius. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 259 

It therefore pertains to scientific men to say 
what is to be made of all this. Will they say 



Again, the entire length of the Antechamber floor, multi- 
plied by 'tt, gives the exact number of days in a year. 

Again, the number of cubic inches contained in the granite 
leaf which hangs across the Antechamber, measured to the edges 
of the dressed surfaces, is 10,000 vr. 

So, likewise, in the Queen's Chamber, the height of that sig- 
nificant niche in the east wall, multiplied by 10 tt, gives the 
Pyramid's vertical height. 

Also that niche, to its inner long shelf, multiplied by 10 tt^ 
gives the Pyramid's base-side length. 

Also the square root of ten times the height of one of the- 
Queen's Chamber end walls, divided by the height of the niche, 
is 7r. 

So, again, the lengths of the first ascending passage and the 
Grand G-allery added together, or the total of ascending line, 
divided by tt, gives the length, as far as it has thus far been 
measured or calculated, of the entrance passage from the origi- 
nal surface to the first ascending passage. 

The thirty-sixth horizontal course of stones in the structure 
of the Great Pyramid is remarkable for being nearly double the 
thickness of the courses immediatelj'- below it. The base of that 
peculiar course is just ten times the height of the Antechamber ;; 
and the distance from the vertical centre of the edifice to the 
nearest point of either side at that height, divided by 10, gives 
the number of days in a year, and the same divided by the ver- 
tical height of that point is tt, or the proportion of the diameter 
of a circle to its circumference. 

So, again, in the Cofi'er, there comes out the same irrepres- 
sible 7r. The height of the Cofi'er is to the length of its side and 
end as 1 to tt. The Cofi'er 's depth, multiplied by the area of one 
of its long sides, is tt. A circle, with the breadth of the Cofi"er's 
base for a diameter, or a square, with the depth of the Cofi'er, 
gives the external area of one of its long sides, divided by fr. 

So, again, in the interrelations of the several main parts of 
the Pyramid as a whole, the King's Chamber, and the Cofi'er. la 



260 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

it is mere accident, and just happened so ? As 
well might they pronounce the placement of 
the figures in the multiplication table an acci- 
dent. Will they say it was part of the com- 
mon science of the period ? Then how came 
there to be not another vestige or trace of it in 
all the world for three thousand years but in 
this one single memorial ? There are dozens 
of other pyramids in Egypt, and massive re- 
mains in various countries, dating to a very 
remote antiquity, and why does no trace of it 
appear anywhere in any of them ? The new 
theory on this subject fully explains all the 
facts, and if we are not to accept that theory 



each of these three one rule governs the shape of each, namely, 
the two principal dimensions added together are tf times the 
third. The Pyramid's length and breadth thus equal rt height ; 
the King's Chamber length and height equal a breadth ; the 
Coffer's length and breadth equal tt height. 

All these and numerous other such propositions have been 
thoroughly worked out by competent mathematicians, and, any 
one able to perform the necessary operations, needs only to refer 
to the actual measurements in order to verify all for himself. 
Indeed, men might as well undertake to deny that the Pyramid 
exists as to deny the ascertained and demonstrable omnipresence 
and constant use of these mathematical ideas in its construction 
and arrangements. The discoverers and demonstrators of these 
facts are Mr. James Simpson, Mr. St. John Vincent Day, Prof. 
H. L. Smith, Captain Tracy, E.A., John Taylor, Prof. Smyth, 
etc. Many of the facts are given in Johnson's New Universal 
Cyclopedia, article " Pyramid," and in the last edition of Our 
Inheritance in the Great Pyramid, by Prof Smyth, 1877. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 261 

it devolves on those who reject it to give us 
something else that will explain them. 

It is also a fact, that, the more science be- 
comes sure and accurate in its enunciations, 
the closer do they come to the indications in 
the Great Pyramid. A remarkable instance 
of this has recently occurred with reference to 
the problem of the sun-distance. 

By observations of the transit of planets, from 
the lunar irregularities, by experiments touch- 
ing the velocity of light, and from perturba- 
tions in the courses of the heavenly bodies, 
very many .attempts have been made to reach 
a solution of this problem. In 1824, Encke 
gave the distance as 95,370,000 miles, and his 
estimate has been most generally received. 
For some years, however, his figures have been 
regarded by scientists as from 1 to 21 millions 
of miles too high, and the expectation has been 
that the universal and expensive arrangements 
for the observation of the transit of Yen us in 
1874 would furnish the data requisite to settle 
the matter. The full results of these observa- 
tions, made under the most favorable circum- 
stances, and with the most refined astronomi- 
cal apparatus, have not yet transpired; but 
they are beginning to come out, and altogether 
more favorably to the Pyramid indications, 



262 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

which give the mean sun-distance as 91,840,000 
miles. The English estimate, which Prof. R. 
A. Proctor pronounces '' a satisfactory one," 
now stands at 92,600,000 miles, a reduction 
from the old estimate of 2,770,000 miles nearer 
to the Pyramid indications. In France, M. 
Puiseaux, who has bestowed very great and 
laborious attention to the subject, and who feels 
confident that he cannot be more than a few 
hundred miles in error, puts down the most re- 
cent estimate of the sun's distance at 91,840,270 
miles, or 759,730 miles still nearer to the 
Pyramid indications, and actually within 270 
miles of the exact Pyramid figures ! On the 
announcement of this result, the French paper, 
Xe<sJfbncZe5, very justly exclaimed, "Za Grande 
Pyramide a vaincu'' — The Great Pyramid has 

CONQUERED ! 

A very interesting fact has also been brought 
to my knowledge by Commodore Whiting. In 
the communication to which I have already re- 
ferred, that learned gentleman writes me con- 
cerning the desirableness of the Great Pyramid 
as a meridional zero for the universal computa- 
tion of longitude, and says : " My friend, M. F. 
Maury, whom I succeeded in command of the U. 
S. Observatory at Washington, was probably the 
greatest geognost in the world. His attention 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 263 

was directed to the nether or lower meridian. 
The English, and all nations using the Eng- 
lish language and charts, compute their longi- 
tude from Greenwich, the French from Paris, 
the Spanish from Cadiz, the Russians from 
Cronstadt, etc., adopting these as the initiatory 
meridians of their respective charts, and 180 
degrees therefrom as the nether meridian. In 
sailing around the world (so common nowa- 
days), persons going west lose a day in their 
calendar, and persons going east gain a day, 
so that circumnavigators, to prevent the con- 
fusion of dates that would otherwise obtain, 
drop a day in the former instance, and dupli- 
cate one in the latter, when crossing the nether 
meridian. Different nations having different 
nether meridians creates confusion, and Maury 
said all nations ouo;lit to asiree on a common 
nether meridian. The English, French, Span- 
ish, Russian, etc., all have their nether me- 
ridian to pass over inhabited portions of the 
earth, so that persons but a few feet apart, if 
upon different sides of the nether meridian, 
would have different calendars, and to the one 
it would be Monday while to the other it would 
be Sunday; and Maury sought for a general 
nether meridian that would be free from this 
disadvantage. Such a meridian he pronounced 



264 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

to be about that degree west of Greenwich, 
which is the exact nether meridian from the 
Great Pyramid. He thus clearly designated 
the meridian of the Great Pyramid as the 
proper initiatory meridian for the world." It 
was an unconscious designation — a conclusion 
reached without an 3^ thought or knowledge of 
any relation between it a^nd the Great Pyra- 
mid, — and it is another instance in which the 
best results of the best science bring us back 
to what was immortally embodied in that won- 
derful pillar of four thousand years ago.* 

* Some have thought that I made a great blunder when I said 
(page 70), that "the Great Pyramid stands on the line which 
equally divides the surface of the northern hemisphere." A 
man high in place, and all his life having practically to do with 
science, wrote me: "It is a mistake so gross that I think it 
must be either a misprint, or a slip of the pen." He said " the 
paragraph evidently should read, that the Pyramid is built on 
the latitude which marks the third distance from the equator to 
the pole, as the half distance is about forty-five degrees, nearly 
one thousand miles from" the Pyramid at the nearest point." I 
replied that I had not spoken of a meridian of distance from 
the equator to the pole, but of " the surface of the northern 
hemisphere " — the whole surface of the earth north of the equa- 
tor. I also submitted to him, and other ready mathematicians, 
the following problem : What j)arallel of latitude equally divides 
the entire earth surface (land and water) lying between the equa- 
tor and 4he pole? requesting its solution by the best scientific 
processes, and to give me word of the result, if it did not tally 
with my statement. I had not thoroughly worked out the 
problem myself; but as the lines of longitude all terminate in 
a point at the pole, and the earth itself is very considerably fiat- 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 265 

Adverse Inquiries. 

But few of the notices of these Lectures at- 
tempt any argument on the subject. It was 
not to be expected that they should. Several 
points, however, have been made, to which it 
may be desirable to allude. 

A prominent and pervading objection in a 
number of the adverse judgments given is, that 
the whole presentation is too fanciful for belief . 
If by this is meant that what is stated iovfact 
is nothing but the work of an enthusiastic 
imagination, we can only pity the uncandid- 
ness and flippancy of those who make the as- 
sertion, and appeal to the records of explorers 



tened in its polar diameter, I concluded, on a rough estimate, 
that about the thirtieth degree from the equator would give the 
line sought. More than five months have passed since I sub- 
mitted the problem for thorough mathematical solution, but no 
reply has yet come to indicate any error in my statement. 

It may also be worth while to note here that Commodore 
Whiting is of opinion that the fact that the Great Pyramid is 
situated a little below the thirtieth degree of north latitude, is 
perhaps meant to refer to the ellipticity of the earth, and to 
mark just one-third of the line of its meridian from the equator 
to the pole. For those who wish to work on this suggestion I 
give the results of observations upon the exact latitude of the 
Great Pyramid, viz. : 

M. Nouet-'s observations make it 29° 59^ 6^^. 

Piazzi Smyth's, with Playfair instrument, 29° 58'' bV\ 

Shifting westward to avoid low ground, 29° 59^ 12''^. 



266 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

and investigators, which; if not to be credited, 
leaves nothing on which to believe that the 
Great Pyramid exists. I claim to have given 
facts^ not fancies; and it is that wonderful 
array of facts that men are now called on to 
deal with. My inferences from those facts 
may, perhaps, be faulty and illogical, but that 
can only be fairly determined by a full can- 
vassing of the facts, and first obtaining a com- 
plete and appreciative understanding of them, 
which cannot be the case with those who 
superciliously dismiss the whole matter as 
nothing but romance and fable. 

Nor should we forget that it is a very old 
and familiar thing for people petulantly to 
brand as silliness and lunacy whatever un- 
pleasantly cuts into their old round of think- 
ing, or unwelcomely disturbs their pleasant 
ease. It is a cheap way of getting over what 
would otherwise be inconvenient. It was after 
this fashion that the Jews set aside Jesus of 
Nazareth, and that many of Paul's hearers 
spoke of him. And so the early Christians, 
as a class, stand registered in the annals of 
Pasfan Kome. But were these fanatics ? Was 
their cause that crazy thing which so many 
were pleased to regard it ? Were the people 
who so disposed of it the just^ sober, and wise 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 267 



ones in acting thus ? Do not all believers, who 
have since lived, unite in holding them very 
blameworthy and unreasonable ? A thing is 
not a wild, fanatical conceit, because some 
may treat it as such. When a serious subject 
presents itself, it argues very unfavorably for 
people, without examination, to pooh-pooh it 
as nonsense. True philosophers and candid 
inquirers for the truth never proceed after that 
fashion. And if men would, indeed, exemplify 
the superior sense and moderation which they 
are so facile in assuming to themselves as their 
particular monopoly, they have need of a goodly 
degree more of reserve than some have shown 
in their offhand characterizations of the fair 
and honorable efforts of their equals to gain 
attention to a great subject. 

One publication, generally appreciative and 
just, propounds the question: "If all that is 
said of the superior intelligence embodied in 
the Great Pyramid is true, how is it that four 
thousand years had to pass away before a 
hierophant of the sacred mystery appeared?" 
We might ask the same question with regard 
to the wonders of steam and electricitv, the 
circulation of the blood, the uses of stone-coal, 
and a hundred other things more naked and 
open to the view of universal man for nearly 



268 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

six thousand years than the Pyramid has been 
to anybody, except within the past few hundred 
years. How is it that no one ever appeared 
until so recently to tell us what was before all 
eyes unread and unsuspected for such scores 
of centuries ? So, also, infidelity asks, Why 
did not Christ come with his alleged light and 
salvation till after four thousand years of apos- 
tasy and darkness were allowed to roll their 
weary ages over the race ? Such a question 
at best is wholly out of place as against facts 
duly ascertained; for facts proven must be 
admitted, whether we can explain them or 
not. Besides, in the case of the Great Pyra- 
mid, a vital part of the theory is, that the in- 
tent in its building was to set up a prehis- 
toric monument, which should pass unrecog- 
nized as to its object through all the ages of 
history, in order to disclose its message in the 
last period of this world, and by its marvel- 
lous testimonies to confound and leave with- 
out excuse the blatant unbelief and ruinous 
skepticism foreseen and foretold as one of the 
characteristics of the last times. It found no 
interpreter, because it was part of the inten- 
tion that it should have none ; and because, 
according to its purpose, it would have been 
out of time and place to have one till the 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 269 

period for which its great message was meant 
had arrived. 

In the same spirit and with the same in- 
tent another paper inquires : "Granting every- 
thing the author says, if the human intellect 
had not first found out all these truths, how 
could he ever find them in the Pyramid?" 
This inquirer is at fault in assuming that 
everything claimed to be symbolized in the 
Great Pyramid has been found out by " the 
human intellect." Some of these things are 
purely subjects of divine revelation as con- 
tained in the Scriptures. With this correction 
I am very free to admit that, without the 
Bible to put me in possession of the doctrines 
and prophecies therein presented, and without 
the results attained by modern science, it would 
be impossible for me to read anything in the 
Great Pyramid which is now found there. But 
a man's inability to read the Bible does not 
prove it empty of truth. Neither does a man's 
ability to read what is there prove that its 
contents are from the unaided human intel- 
lect. So in this case, though science be re- 
quired to read and understand the science sym- 
bolized in the Great Pyramid, the spirit of 
inspiration may still have been necessary to 
put that science there — seeing that it was put 

18 



270 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

there — before the days of science. The point 
is, not that miraculous inspiration alone could 
teach man the truths pertaining to the physi- 
cal universe, but that the framing of so com- 
plete and comprehensive a monument of those 
truths before modern science began to be, and 
before the human intellect had at all found 
them out, argues the efficient presence of a 
superhuman Intelligence, and so furnishes a 
demonstration, in science's own field, of the 
reality of miraculous inspiration, which science 
in its pride is now disposed to question and 
deride. It is an argument addressed to science, 
and hence requires the presence of science; 
and, until human science was, and had come 
out of its babyhood, of course the address could 
not be delivered nor understood, as neither 
was it needed. 

As I understand the Great Pyramid, and 
the true way of viewing it, it is not so much 
to acquaint the world with scientific truths 
otherwise unknowable, but to show, as those 
truths begin to be known, that they were 
memorialized on earth by men chosen and 
inspired for the purpose before mere human 
science could possibly find them ; that men, 
having monumental evidence of this fact, might 
not, in their vain conceit, exalt themselves 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 271 

against their Maker, disown Providence, deny 
revelation, and undertake to rule the Almighty 
out of His universe. It is, in my understand- 
ing, not so much to give us new revelations as 
to furnish monumental substantiation of old 
ones, of which the prophets from the foundation 
of the world have spoken, and which the per- 
versities of this age are persuading mankind 
to surrender, explain away, deny, or otherwise 
to put aside for a profane homage to a new 
Juggernaut, bearing the fascinating name of 
Progkess. 

But, says another, "If the Pyramid was 
built with so thorough a knowledge of geog- 
raphy, astronomy, science, and theology, as 
now supposed, what became of it in subsequent 
ages ? It is strange that we find no traces of 
such attainments in aftertimes among the 
Chaldeans, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Greeks, or 
the Egyptians themselves. The Copernican 
system was not accepted, even by the most ad- 
vanced thinkers, until more than three thou- 
sand years afterwards. Could a system so 
simple, so beautiful, and so easily demonstrated 
to be correct, ever have been lost to the world 
after it was once clearly understood?" 

I thank this writer for the positiveness with 
which he affirms the total absence of any trace 



272 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

of such science as is now being read from the 
Great Pyramid in all the records of the time 
and for thousands of years afterwards, save in 
this marvellous pillar. It is the truth, and a 
most significant truth. The writer alleges it 
as a sort of a priori reason for not crediting 
any of these reports about the high science 
embodied in the Pyramid; but it is really one 
of the foundation-stones on which its highest 
claims repose. 

Whether the Great Pyramid really does 
witness to the superior science claimed to be 
embodied in it, is a question which must be 
determined, as a matter of fact, on its own 
independent evidences. If this alleged wisdom 
is proven to be there, the fact must stand, 
whatever other conclusions it may necessi- 
tate, or however it may transcend the thoughts 
and beliefs of the nations then and for thirty 
centuries succeeding. If it is there, it is there, 
and all the a priori reasoning in the world can- 
not make it otherwise. And there it most 
certainly is. There is the most evident memo- 
rialization of the wonder-working mathemati- 
cal TT. There is the most evident notation of 
the rotundity and rotation of the earth, its 
annual revolution around the sun, its mean 
distance from the sun, its mean temperature, 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 273 

its weight, its diameter, its land distribution, 
and the exact way every part of it lies with 
regard to the four cardinal points. There is 
the most evident notation of the true year, of 
the grand precession al cycle, and of the proper 
beginning and length of both. Every one 
living and capable of comprehending these 
particulars can read and trace them there in 
the various measures, pointings, angles, and 
counts, as readily as he can work the com- 
monest arithmetic rules, or demonstrate the 
theorems of geometry, or read the constella- 
tions. None of these things were truly known 
to any nation of the time, or for a score and 
a half of centuries thereafter. Until the days 
of modern science there is no other trace of 
them on earth in all the records, monuments, 
or remains of intellectual man. Shall we sav, 
then, that the getting of these things into the 
Pyramid is mere blind accident and meaning- 
less coincidence? Why, then, has the like 
occurred but once in the first five thousand 
years of man's existence ? Might we not as 
well take up the tables of our annual al- 
manacs, and seeing them accurately fulfilled 
as the year rolls round, say, "These are very 
marvellous coincidences, but it is all blind 
guesswork; it has only happened so: the men 



274 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

that made those almanacs really knew nothing 
at all about it !" Which would be the more 
reasonable, to believe our annual almanacs to 
have originated in haphazard guessing, or to 
set down the Great Pyramid's memorialization 
and constant use of tt, as a mere fortuitous co- 
incidence, neither understood nor intended by 

the architect ? And if these ancient builders 

» 

did understand ;r, and build to it, and lay up in 
stone a hundred items of most extraordinary 
intelligence by means of it, where did they get 
it ? How came they to be so grandly informed 
above all the children of men for five thousand 
years ? Can there be any other rational an- 
swer than that which I have indicated in these 
Lectures? Verily it was God's special gift to 
them for this one individual purpose, that they 
might build unto Him, *'in the midst of the 
land of Egypt," an altar-pillar^ w^hich, in the 
latter days, should "be for a sign and for a 
witness unto the Lord of hosts." 

But we are asked, if men four thousand 
years ago had such superior knowledge, what 
became of it ? How could it be lost ? I might 
as well demand, how came the world to lose 
that knowledge of the true and only God 
which man so eminently possessed in the be- 
ginning of his history ? But I will not press 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 275 

such an inquiry. The high knowledge vouch- 
safed to the builders of the Great Pyramid 
was for a particular end, and that end was not 
the enunciation of it to the world that then 
was, and was in so poor a condition to receive 
or profit by it, but for unique memorialization 
as a message to a long-after age of boastful 
science, self-defying theorizings, and a too 
confident glorifying of the power and infalli- 
bility of man's reason. Lost ! It has not been 
lost. It is there, exactly where those noble 
"sons of God" put it, as directed by the 
Father. It has come over the chasm and 
waste of nearly forty and a half centuries 
without a word or syllable missing. There 
lie its tables of stone, approachable to all this 
world of adored progress, and challenging all 
the supercilious savants of unbelief to look^ 
understand, and learn wisdom. What became 
of it ? Why, having made its intended voyage 
in safety across the sea of ages to our world, 
and begun to speak its grand message to those 
for whom it is meant, those who should most 
gladly welcome its glorious testimony for God 
and his universal truth, and most willingly 
give themselves to an earnest searching out 
of what it has to say, insult it in the halls of 
science, scoff at it with vulgar jests, array it 



276 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

in robes of mockery, make merry over its 
strange speech, disown it because it will not 
link itself with their false philosophies, and 
insist on gibbeting it, or stamping it out for- 
ever, because it puts forth claims to be heaven- 
born and heaven-sent ! This is what has be- 
come of it. 

But this inquiry about what became of such 
knowledge, taken as an argument against the 
claims now made for the Great Pyramid, 
grounds itself upon an assumption which can- 
not be maintained. It assumes that those who 
built this monument fully understood and 
thoroughly comprehended everything which 
now turns out to be contained in their edifice. 
This, as a recent writer justly says, '^is not 
warranted by the logic of facts nor the logic 
of reason." God's works as a whole, both in 
nature and providence, are so correlated, and 
are projected on such a constantly recurring 
unity of plan, that one department is ever 
translatable into another — the natural into 
the spiritual, the earthly into the heavenly, 
the microcosm into the macrocosm, the sec- 
tional into the general, the lower into the 
higher, the units into the multiples, the exte- 
rior into the interior, the beginnings into the 
endings, the physical into the intellectual— 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 277 

and each part so coheres m the one thought 
of the one eternal and all-embracing Mind, 
that truly and adequately to symbolize one 
department necessarily includes like truths in 
other departments, though unconsciously to 
those framing the symbol. This one great 
fact, of which we now have so many illustra- 
tions, and which is so reasonably inferable 
from the origination and ordering of all things 
from and by one and the same infinite and 
eternal Intellect, completely answers the cap- 
tious objections made against pyramidologists 
for making the same lines, angles, measures, 
avenues, rooms, and stones refer to so many 
different things. If God arranges that the 
leaves shall come out on the stems of the va- 
rious plants in an order coincident with the 
relative distances of the several planets from 
the sun, where is the unreasonableness of it? 
or, what confusion does it introduce between 
botany and astronomy? Because the fifth 
chapter of Genesis, read acrostically in the 
import of its names, gives us the history of 
human redemption, what hindrance or absurd- 
ity does that interpose to the reading of it as 
the obituary list of the antediluvian patri- 
archs ? Does not the same alphabet spell all 
our words, and by its various combinations 



278 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

serve to record all our knowledge ? And 
when, by reading certain features of the Great 
Pyramid in one way, we get one circle of 
truths, and by reading them in other ways, 
based on Pyramid presentations, w^e get quite 
other circles of truths, or trace in one part 
coincidences with readings in a different kind 
in another part, where is the illogicalness of 
it or the confounding of things any more than 
in the cases just named ? 

When one thing in God's works is itself the 
symbol of other things in His works, it is only 
necessary that the constructor of the expres- 
sion of it should understand the one in order 
to include the other. And considering that 
the Great Pyramid was built not for the people 
who then lived, but in order to convey a di- 
vine message to the science world of our daj^, 
it is not at all implied that its builders con-> 
sciously understood even the half their work 
really expresses. The prophets did not always 
understand what they were inspired to write. 
The holy record itself tells us that they in- 
quired, and searched, and tried to find out, 
but never fully comprehended what and what 
manner of time the Spirit that w^as in them 
did signify (1 Peter 1:10-12). God's truth 
was amply embraced in what they wrote, and 



A MIRACLE IN STOXE. 279 

in long after time was seen to be fulfilledj and 
served all its intended ends, notwithstanding 
that the writers themselves were not thor- 
oughly in the clear about it. And if the 
prophets could truly enunciate the divine pur- 
pose without fully comprehending it at the 
time, much rather could these builders of the 
Pyramid do their work, under the direction of 
the same Spirit, without understanding all that 
was afterwards to be read from the various 
features of the mighty edifice they were com- 
missioned to rear, and seal up till the time of 
the end. Who is prepared to maintain that 
Moses fully comprehended all the relations 
and symbolic meanings which are now seen 
and known to be contained in the various 
institutes, constructions, and erections w^hich 
God directed him to make? Are we therefore 
to deny that these symbolisms are there ? 
How unreasonable and illogical, then, to as- 
sume that the men who built the Great Pyra- 
mid must necessarily have understood and 
practically mastered and digested all the sci- 
entific and religious facts, histories, and proph- 
ecies capable of being deciphered from their 
work ; or to argue that, because the heathen 
nations give no evidence of ever having had 
such a wisdom, we must conclude against the 



280 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

possibility of finding it in the Pyramid. On 
the contrary, science now proves that a high 
science is there, and for the very reason that 
for so many, many centuries no other trace of 
it appears in the works of man, the conclusion 
should rather be that it was put there by the 
special inspiration of God, just as the symbol- 
isms of the Tabernacle and its arrangements 
were put there by Him, and for a correspond- 
ing purpose. 

The Pyramid and False Philosophy. 

The apologetic worth of the Great Pyramid 
in the argument for a correct understanding 
of the origin, history and destiny of man, 
should, of itself, command for it the favorable 
interest of every intelligent inquirer, and espe- 
cially of every Christian. 

We live in a skeptical age. In religion and 
in science the temper is in the direction of Ra- 
tionalism and unfaith. Humanity has become 
boastful of its intellectual power, and, proudly 
aiming to be "as God," it has become sensual 
and devilish. If any one will be at the pains 
to analyze what are considered the proudest 
achievements of modern mind, he will find 
them thoroughly materialistic, if not exclu- 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 281 

sively so, and really but little else than in- 
spections and manipulations of the lower ele- 
mentSj— searchings into the ground, — till it 
has come to be concluded in leading circles that 
everything is derivable from mud, without a 
personal God, or need of revelations from Him. 
This spirit is in the prevailing philosophies, in 
the popular theories of politics and legislation, 
in the noisy social reforms of the day, and in 
the most approved religious activities, reacting 
upon theology itself, eating away sound doc- 
trine, and substituting the rationalistic fancies 
of men for the teachinors of Jehovah. Even 
good and honest people are unconsciously full 
of the noxious miasma. From looking up 
towards heaven and the eternal realities, there 
is a proneness, a looking down toward earth, 
and earthly interests and outcomes. When 
we search into the inner heart of modern 
thought and feeling, we find lodged there, in 
one form or another, and more or less affecting 
the whole practical bent of the age, this doc- 
trine, that man is an ever-improving growth, 
that nothing of truth and good is ever forgot- 
ten, and hence that the career of the race is 
ever upward and advancing. Progress is the 
watchword which tells the story. Some make 
the beginning lower down, and some locate 



282 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

the outcome higher up ; but when the whole is 
resolved into its real elements, Evolution, Yonnd- 
ing up at last in a grand millennium of wis- 
dom, peace J and blessedness in this present 
world, is about the sum of the practical beliefs 
and teachings of our times. The kind, the 
degree, the specific factors depended on, may 
be different with different classes, but the type 
is the same. If we look at the museums and 
the books intended for the instruction of the 
people, we find them confidently exhibiting a 
stone age, a bone age, a bronze age, and an 
iron age, as marking the eras of man's coming 
up from monkeyhood or savagism to an ever- 
improving science and civilization. The trea- 
tises on fundamental law largely assume the 
same thing, and deriv-e society and govern- 
ment from the conces-sion of brute rights to 
political rule— as a development from man 
himself, with no other foundation. Theolo- 
gians fall into much the same vein, and find 
the essence of the faith rather in the aggregate 
of growing sentimxents and opinions than in the 
supernatural revelations of God, and preach a 
gra.nd era of triumph to come out of human 
agencies, activities, and progress. The under- 
lying seed-thought is Development^ till all de- 
fects are superseded, and hell itself is abolished, 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 283 

by the unceasing improvement and improva- 
bleness of man. After all, Evolution is the 
faith. 

There is, indeed, a true doctrine of develop- 
ment, but it is wholly different from that which 
so pervades, infests, and degrades our modern 
science and theology. Nor is there anything 
more needed by the present world of mind 
than an effectual corrective for the false philos- 
ophy which is so influencing and debauch- 
ing it 

The truth is in the Scriptures, if men could 
only be persuaded to regard it. The history 
of man as there given, is not at all that as- 
sumed by the progressivists. There the first 
man was the most perfect of all mere men, the 
most knowing, and the most exalted. That 
rare and special rapport with the Supreme In- 
telligence, which for certain gracious purposes 
was afterwards vouchsafed to the prophets, was 
Adam's normal condition. The highest state 
of mind, heart, qualification for a perfect hu- 
man existence, and equipment for all the sub- 
limest duties and relations pertaining to his 
earthly life and destiny, were realized in him, 
as he came from the Creator's hand. A stone 
age, or a bone age, or a gaunt prehistoric sav- 
agism, cracking the bones of wild beasts to 



284 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

get at the marrow, finds no place in these sa- 
cred accounts of man's beginning. No such 
hairy, wolfish, ignorant, and base tenant of the 
marshy woods or dripping caves did God be- 
hold and bless when he set Adam and Eve in 
the world as the image of Himself, and pro- 
nounced them ^^very good." A terrible ca- 
lamity soon ensued to blight man's pristine 
glory, so that everything since naturally devel- 
oped from him has been only deterioration and 
downwardness. But all his superior mental 
endowments and knowledge did not at once 
cease to be. He was still a most exalted, 
knowing, and civilized man, even after his sad 
disobedience, and for all his life of nearly a 
thousand years. His first sons were civilized 
men, who from the first tilled the ground and 
herded the flocks. While Adam lived there 
w^ere musical instruments, musicians, and work- 
ers in brass and iron. Before the flood came 
mankind had all the requisite tools, skill, and 
capacity to build a ship greater than the Great 
Eastern. Noah, who came over the flood in 
that vessel, still lived while one of his descend- 
ants built four cities, and laid the foundations 
of the world's first empire. A few hundred 
years later Abraham appears as a highly civil- 
ized man, and finds an established government 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 285 

and great kingdom, with all the appurtenances 
of a busy and vigorous civilization, in Egypt. 
At the same time Chedorlaomer is king of'Elam, 
and allies himself with other kings, and finds 
kings of Sodom and Gomorrah to make war 
upon. And so the indications, as given in the 
Bible, all are, that the primitive peoples were 
not savages ; that they had letters and laws, 
records, arts, sciences, society, government, 
worship, and everything in greater perfection 
and purity than all the boasted developments 
of man in these later ages. 

This ought to be enough, and to some, for- 
tunately, it is enough. But the general mind 
is not convinced. Science is disposed to ig- 
nore it altogether, and to insist on a totally 
opposite theory. A proud and pervading skep- 
ticism makes it the subject of special attack 
on the Scriptures, a supercilious rationalism 
explains it away, and Evolution is the faith. 

As far as we are able to trace the history 
of man from his works and remains, the scrip- 
tural narratives would seem to be borne out in 
every particular. Everything that is known 
of the primeval peoples shows them coming 
upon the scene together and with a full-fledged 
civilization. Beginning with modern Europe, 
we can trace man back through the Middle 

19 



286 A MIRACLE IN STONE, 

Ages to Rome, through Rome to 750 years 
before Christ, and then through the Greeks 
to the Trojan war, about 1200 years before 
Christ. By the aid of modern explorations 
and discoveries, in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Per- 
sia, Arabia, India, China, tc., we are carried 
back to from 2000 to 2500 years before Christ. 
But there, within a circle of a few hundred 
years, all traces of man disappear. Some of 
the nations have claimed a much greater an- 
tiquity, but no monumental remains are to be 
found to prove them any older than these 
dates. Man has left no memorials which can 
be proven to be older than 2800 years before 
Christ, nor have any been found certainly so 
old as that. Within a few hundred years after 
that date the existing remains are numerous, 
and in all of them we find writing, engraving, 
husbandry, government, vast architecture, sci- 
ence references, brilliant dressing, elaborate 
ornaments, metals, jewels, cities, temples, and 
all the paraphernalia of a high civilization^ 
just as the Scriptures represent. But still 
the restless public mind is not convinced, nor 
ready to settle down upon the truth — Evolu- 
tion IS THE FAITH. 

Here, then, comes m the Great Pyramid to 
crown and seal the argument. It is a tangi- 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 287 

ble monument, which dates back to within 
two hundred years of Egypt's beginning as a 
nation. It comes from far beyond the historic 
times. It was built by those primeval peoples, 
of whose gradual education from savage life 
not a particle of proof can be produced. Stone 
implements are found in Egypt, but there is 
no evidence that they are any older than the 
Great Pyramid. That greatest and oldest of 
all existing edifices on earth was not built 
with stone saws and bone mattocks. Iron 
and steel were required, which in turn re- 
quired furnaces, and art, and high civilization 
to produce them. We know that iron tools 
were used in the Great Pyramid's construc- 
tion, for one was found by Colonel Howard 
Vise's excavations imbedded in the cement 
where no opening was ever made before from 
the time the building was erected. It is a 
large piece, and may be seen in the British 
Museum, in London, proving the high civili- 
zation of the people who used it.* 

* Where did the Egyptians, at that early day, get the im- 
mense quantity of iron required for all the tools that must needs 
have been used in erecting such an edifice of cut rocks, occupy- 
ing 100,000 men for thirty years, seeing that there is scarcely 
any workable iron ore from one end of the Nile to the other? 

St. John Vincent Day, in a paper read before the Philosoph- 
ical Society of Glasgow, in April, 1877, has given answer to 



288 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

In this edifice is the demonstration also of 
a wonderful genius and skill for cutting, dress- 
ing, transporting, handling, fitting, cementing, 
placing, and polishing tiie greatest masses of 
the heaviest and hardest of rocks. No greater 
building of solid masonry is known ever to 
have been in our world. The perfection of 

this question. The Sinaitic mountains and hills are known to 
be full of iron of the most excellent kind. A Mr. Hartland, 
some years ago, established himself in that region for mining 
purposes, and there, near Surabit-el-Khadem, and not far from 
Wady Meghara, he found, not traces merely, but colossal re- 
mains, of iron works and furnaces, belonging to the earliest 
kings of ancient Egypt, and on a scale so vast as to be testified 
to by almost mountainous heaps of genuine iron slag and verit- 
able iron furnace refuse (see Proceedings Soc. Antiq., vol. v, 
2d series, June, 1873). Nay, what is still more, remarkable, 
here also, in the immediate neighborhood of the ancient piles 
of slag, is a tablet containing the cartouches of Shufu (Cheops) 
and Nem-Shufu, the same as in the quarry-marks discovered 
by Colonel Howard Vise on the hidden stones in the Great 
Pyramid ! These records are engraved in a soffit in the face of 
the natural rock, where they directly overlook the scene of the 
furnaces. They begin with the name of Soris, the immediate 
predecessor of Cheops, under whom the Egyptians seem to have 
been put through the apprenticeship of working in iron. One 
of Egypt's ancient kings also appears on the monuments with 
a name which means "a lover of iron." The proofs are that 
Egypt, in the period of the Great Pyramid's building and im- 
mediately preceding, did here devote itself immensely and effect- 
ively to the manufacture of iron, and so became supplied with 
the metal implements necessary in the building of the Pyra- 
mids. And all this was in that very period which is put down 
by the progressive development philosophy as the stone age of 
man's infancy and savagism ' 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 289 

the workmanship, and the mechanical accu- 
racy, and the intellectuality of the calcula- 
tions in the construction and emplacements, 
have never been surpassed in any structure in 
any age. On its stones, too, are the proofs 
that the builders could read and write. And 
with such an edifice before us, come down to 
us from almost the remotest extreme of the 
known prehistoric ages, and bearing with it 
these undeniable marks, how overwhelming is 
the demonstration against the evolution phi- 
losophy.'' Well may the skeptical Renan con- 
fess and exclaim: "When we think of this 
civilization, that it had no infancy ; that this 
art, of which there remain innumerable monu- 
ments, had no archaic period; that the Egypt 
of Cheops and Cephren is superior, in a sense, 
to all that followed; on est pris de vertiger 

But when to all this we add, as we must, 
those higher and sublimer things of the Great 
Pyramid, of which Renan then had no con- 
ception, — when we add the high mathematical 
principles, the astronomical calculations and 
references, the cosmical knowledge and sym- 
bolizations, the metrological embodiments and 
indications, and the geographical aptitudes so 
unmistakably identified, capable of being read 
only in the light of the highest achievements 



290 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

of modern science, and enunciated with a deii- 
niteness and precision which modern science 
has in most instances not yet reached, — when 
we trace here a symbolized epitome of univer- 
sal truth and knowledge, much of it beyond 
any science of mere man, and nowhere trace- 
able on earth, save here and in the Scriptures, 
Kenan's fit of giddy consternation must needs 
be intensified into most stunning and crushing 
disaster. The evolution philosophj^, whether 
in science, art, or theology, here meets a mas- 
sive and invincible contradiction and catas- 
trophe, which buries it under five million tons 
of worked marble and granite ! It must lift 
the Great Pyramid out of the path of human 
history, or it is in all sound reason estopped 
forever, and all its kindred Kationalism with it. 
Of course the made-up evolutionists will not 
agree that the Great Pyramid has killed their 
god. It is not to be expected that they will 
yield at summons to such a thorough revolu- 
tion and reconstruction in their favorite and 
life-long theories. How can they patiently 
resign what is so much a part of their proudest 
boast and being ? And hence it is that the 
presentations concerning the Great Pyramid 
appear to them so absurd and ridiculous that 
any silly question or clever trick is deemed 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 2dl 

answer enough to all the showings on the sub- 
ject. But if the mighty monument is to be 
allowed its full say, all the subtle theories that 
contradict or emasculate the Bible story must 
take defeat^ from which there is no recovery. 



Some Additional Particulars. 

Since the publication of the preceding Lec- 
tures several further items have been brought 
forward with regard to the Great Pyramid's 
symbolizations, to some of which it may be 
desirable here to allude. 

If this great monument really presents what 
I have indicated with reference to astronomical 
and cosmical truths, we might reasonably ex- 
pect it also to embody some data respecting 
the alternation of the seasons, and the causes 
by which these differences in the course of a 
year are produced. The same would also seem 
to have been discovered in the eccentricity of 
the placement of the entrance tube. That en~ 
trance is not in the centre of the building, but 
a little to the eastward. Of and on this dis- 
placement, Mr. Cockburn Muir, civil engineer^ 
has made calculations, and mathematically 
treated them in connection with other Pyra- 



292 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

mid numbers and proportions, and found the 
indication of an angle equal to 23° 57' 50'', 
which he regards as an expression of what the 
obliquity of the ecliptic was in the year the 
Pyramid was built. Having calculated for the 
degree of eccentricity of the ecliptic in B.C. 
2170, the result came out coincident with the 
angle he had deduced from the entrance pas- 
sage displacement within 49''. Another and 
earlier calculation, however, made with par- 
ticular care by Mr. J. N. Stock well (printed 
in the SmitJisonian Contributions to Knoidedge 
for 1872), presents the obliquity of the ecliptic, 
in 2170 B.C., as 23° 57' 50.2", exactly within 
two-tenths of a second what Mr. Muir calcu- 
lated from the Pyramid that the angle should 
be. The processes are indicated in Prof 
Smyth's last edition (1877) of Our Inlieritance 
in the Great Pyramid (pp. 401-7). The angle 
of the obliquity of the ecliptic at present is 
given in the books as 23° 27' 30". 

The same displacement in the number of its 
inches (three hundred and a small fraction), 
also gives the ellipticity of the earth, or the 
amount of the protuberance at the equator 
over its polar diameter, which science has 
registered at one three-hundredth, or close 
thereto, and on which rests that remarkable 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 293 

feature in the appearances of the heavens 
which makes the precessional cycle. 

During last winter a gentleman from Swit- 
zerland, who became particularly interested 
in my remarks on the Pyramid's symboli^a- 
tions of Christianity found in the Grand Gal- 
lery, called my attention to a fact which he 
regarded as singularly confirmatory of the 
presentations on that subject. Everything in 
Christianity, he justly said, rests on, as it prac- 
tically perpetuates, the life, death, resurrec- 
tion, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Those 
rampholes, in connection with the vertical 
settings into the walls beside them, refer back 
to the death and resurrection of Christ sym- 
bolized by the '^ well," and express the same as 
spiritually wrought into the experiences and 
hopes of all true Christians. And so, he said, 
the number of inches in the whole length of 
the Grand Gallery, divided by the number of 
these rampholes, gives the exact number of 
years embraced in Christ's earthly life, from 
his birth to his ascension into heaven, namely, 
33 years and nearly one-half. 

It may also be observed, that the length of 
the Grand Gallery in inches, divided by the 
number of stones by which it is covered, gives 
the exact number of weeks in a year, including 



294 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

the fraction, and that these thirty-six roof- 
stones likewise count the number of millions 
of cubic inches of space inclosed in the Gal- 
lery, of which they are the ceiling.* 

* A correspondent has also called my attention to other pas- 
sages than those which I cited in the preceding Lectures in the 
Book of Job. He thinks he can trace various indications, as- 
sertions, and allusions in that remarkable book, as I believe he 
€an, which strongly confirm some of the points suggested in 
these Lectures. He refers particularly to Job 26 : 13, as very 
distinctly assigning the framing of the constellations to a divine 
source, and specially singling out the constellation of the dragon 
or serpent, as formed of God, and which is one of the founda- 
tion references in the Great Pyramid. Job is there describing 
the power, majesty, and doings of God, and says: "By his 
Spirit he hath garnished the heavens ; his hand hath formed 
the crooked [or fleeing^ serpent." The annotator in Bagster's 
quarto Bible very pertinently remarks, that the last statement 
must refer to some constellation, " as it is not likely that this 
inspired writer should in an instant descend from garnishing 
the heavens to the formation of a reptile. " Barnes says, " There 
can be no doubt that Job refers here to one of the constellations, 
which, it seems, was then known as the serpent or dragon." 
But if so, then the garnishing or adorning of the heavens in 
general, must refer to the arrangement of the constellations in 
general, of which the making of " the fleeing serpent" is one. 
And so Barnes concludes : " The sense in the passage before us 
is, that the greatness and glory of God are seen by forming the 
beautiful and glorious constellations that adorn the sky ;" not 
simply the stars of which they are composed, but the figures 
by which they are designated. There is also a very full and 
evangelic theology contained in these constellations which 
can easily be read, and which is so utterly confounding to the 
rationalism of our day that there ought to be no delay in 
bringing it out. They are the Gospel on the sky, formed of God, 
or by "his Spirit" inspiring men for the purpose, and the 
Pyramid is their earthly counterpart. 



A MIRACLE IN" STONE. 295 

A few months ago a Pennsylvania clergy- 
man, much interested in these studies, and 
strongly impressed with the arguments for the 
supernatural origin of the Great Pyramid, sug- 
gested that if the Grand Gallery represents the 
Christian dispensation from the birth of Christ 
to its end, there would probably be some refer- 
ence to the great Reformation of the sixteenth 
century; that, if anything of this could be 
pointed out, it would greatly strengthen the 
whole theory; and that he much wished some 
examination with regard to this particular. 
Answer was given him that the suggestion 
refers to a matter of detail which we could 
hardly hope to find in so summary a symboli- 
zation of our economy as a whole ; that, in the 
scriptural prophecies of the Church's career, 
specific references to the Reformation are very 
hard to find and identify ; and that it would 
scarcely be fair to expect symbolisms, dating 
two thousand years before the New Testa- 
ment, to be more full and specific than the 
New Testament itself. Nevertheless, it was 
promised to make some examination with ref- 
erence to the suggestion. 

In searching the recorded descriptions, no- 
tations, and measures of the Grand Gallery, 
nothing presented itself from which to read 



296 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

aught touching the Reformation, unless^ per- 
haps, the difference of solidity and durability 
in the courses of the rampstones, interpreted 
in the same way in which I spoke of the great 
step at the upper end of the Gallery (pp. 
135-6) . In the condition of these rampstones, 
some facts do appear which rather singularly 
coincide with features in the condition of the 
Church at the different dates of its history, 
and which may have been designed to express 
those features. Without intending to found 
an argument on these particulars, they are 
sufficiently curious and interesting to be noted. 

The rampstones on the east side of the 
Grand Gallery, from 1087 to 1186 inches from 
the beginning, seem to have been unusually 
weak and frail, as much of the ramp for this 
interval is almost entirely broken away. So 
on the west side, from 1240 to 1317 inches, 
the ramp has considerably yielded, and is 
much broken away. So the incisions in the 
ramps, that is, the ramp7io/e<s or little open 
graves, on the east side, from 1087 to 1186 
inches, are almost entirely gone, broken away. 
On the west side, from 1240 to 1317 inches^ 
it is the same. 

Another presentation is that the east ramp, 
from 640 to 1400 inches from the beginning, 



A MIRACLE IN STONE, 297 

is much ^^ fissured and parted from the walls, 
also the floor from the ramps." On the west 
side, for this same distance, the floor is parted 
from the ramp, so as to leave a crevice half an 
inch wide 

Prof. Smyth remarks that ^^ along nearly the 
whole distance from 400 to 1800 inches of 
western ramp, and occasionally along eastern 
ramp, there are longitudinal parallel scratches, 
forming almost a border, or species of intended 
ornament, following the direction of the ramp. 
They are inflicted upon and along its upper 
edge, close under the top, and toward the axis 
of the Gallery. But, although the same lines 
are traceable far, they do not extend the whole 
distance, being more or less gradually retraced 
by others." 

If, then, we take an inch as the symbol of 
a year, as in other instances, we would thus 
have signs of weakening and giving way 
from 1000 to 1317, and so again from 640 to 
1400. There would seem to be also the signs 
of violent and varied defacements, beginning 
with about 400, and extending more or less, 
with some interchanges, down to our present 
century. Compare these indications now with 
the historical facts and general condition of 
the Church at those dates of our era. 



298 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

A.D. 640. This was the time in which 
lordly privileges and investments were con- 
ferred upon the clergy, introducing that wide 
and long-continued severance between them 
and the laity. It was the time when the 
Romish hierarchy gradually began to assume 
its imperious authority, which grew and con- 
tinued in its strength for so many centuries. 

A.D. 1000 to 1300. In this period the 
Church reached its most ruinous condition. 
It was the sceculum ohsciirum of Christian his- 
tory, the age of darkness. It was during this 
time that the Church was rent into two op- 
posing, factions, the Eastern and the Western, 
which mutually excommunicated each other. 
It was the period in which transubstantiation 
was confirmed as a doctrine, Mariolatry in- 
serted in the liturgies, converts made by force 
of arms, and religion turned into a mere me- 
chanical routine. It was the age of Hilde- 
brand, and the establishment of a Csesarism 
over the Church of God. It was the period 
of the dominancy of monkery in its worst 
corruptions, when scandalous profligacy and 
ignorance disgraced the ministry, when the 
reading of the Bible was prohibited under the 
severest penalties, when false sacraments were 
multiplied, penances instituted, indulgences 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 299 

invented, the Church subjected to a blind sub- 
mission to a domineering priesthood, and in- 
terdicts and penalties dealt out upon kings and 
nations by a usurped plenary jurisdiction at 
Rome. It was the worst period in all the 
history of the Church, in which spiritual 
Christianity had wellnigh departed from the 
earth. 

These are the inch numbers which include 
the greatest dilapidations, breakages, and de- 
fects. Take now those which indicate the 
greatest firmness arid durability. 

A.D, 1186 and onward presents various 
movements for a better order of things, the 
beginnings of reformation, the revival of edu- 
cation, the commencement of the study of the 
classics and of theology as a science, and the 
introduction of reason and sense into the treat- 
ment of sacred things. It was the age of Al- 
exander Hales, Bonaventura, Albert Magnus, 
Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Roger Bacon, 
and the Magna Gliarta. It was the period 
when the papal power began to decline before 
the germs of free institutions and popular 
rights, the founding of universities, and the 
study of religious doctrines. It was the period 
when the human mind began to stir again. It 
was the period of the laying of the foundations 



800 A MIRACLE IN STONE. . 

on which the great Reformation was subse- 
quently wrought out. 

A. D. 1400 and onward was specially marked 
as a period of reformers and of reformatory 
discussions and councils. It was the period of 
Wickliffe in England, Huss in Bohemia, Ger- 
son in France, Tauler in Germany, and Thomas 
a Kempis. It was the period of early Bible 
translations, of the study of the Scriptures, and 
of general awakening and agitation on the sub- 
ject of a purer and living faith, and a better 
morality, which came to fulness and matured 
fruit in the hundred years succeeding. 

But besides the brokenness and waste of the 
ramps and the rampholes, and the damaging 
partings that appear, there are particular scar- 
ifications. They have the peculiar character 
of being '''inflicted^' or imposed by some ad- 
verse violence, partly on the eastern ramp, but 
especially on the western, from 400 to 1800. 
They are interchanged with each other, one 
seemingly running out, and then another taking 
its place. They tell of extraneous power brought 
to bear to tear and scratch the ramps, and to 
disfigure them. And when we consider the 
Church's history Vv^ith reference to such scarify- 
ing external powers exerted in and upon the 
Church, it is difficult to conceive a more ex- 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 301 

pressive figure of them than the appearances 
on these ramps. Going back to A.D. 400, we 
strike the very time in which Alaric and his 
heathen hordes came down like an avalanche, 
scarifying, oppressing, and crushing almost to 
destruction, the Church, with the nations which 
he, and those who so speedily followed him, 
overran. Soon after these barbaric invasions 
in the west came Mahomet and his victorious 
armies in the east, much after the same style, 
whose baleful scourgings of the Christian peo- 
ples and Church extend through the centuries. 
About that same period emperors commenced 
their political interferences with the Church, 
putting forth enactments which had to be 
obeyed, conferring State powers on Church 
offices, secularizing the clergy, and enforcing 
many an extraneous and rasping domination 
in and upon the family of Christ, the scars of 
which can be traced in varying lines through 
all the succeeding ages. The State legisla- 
tion which is still betimes hurting and cramp- 
ing the Christian household is but the dwin- 
dled continuity of the same scarifications. 

I lay no special stress on these somewhat 
striking coincidences. If they stood alone I 
would not mention them. It is but natural 
that some stones in the ramp-courses in such 

20 



302 A MIKACLE IN STONE. 

an edifice as the Pyramid should be more firm 
and durable than others, though selected with 
a view to equality. Nor is it marvellous that 
some accident should have inflicted those in- 
terlaced scar-lines and defacements, either in 
the course of the building or since. But still, 
if God really had anything to do with the con- 
struction of the Pyramid, He could j ust as easily 
as not have caused those weaker stones and 
those violent inflictions to come just at those 
places, and between those measures, where 
they would best symbolize these incidents of 
the history. Neither is it impossible that the 
builders should have consciously, by His direc- 
tion, so arranged. This, however, is plainly 
to be seen, that these weaknesses and scarify- 
ings do appear where they belong, on the the- 
ory that the Grand Gallery was meant to be a 
symbol of the Gospel dispensation, and that 
the facts in the Pyramid do strikingly accord 
with the facts of the history. It may be mere 
coincidence; but, considered along with so many 
other things of the same fitting character, it 
cannot be without some incidental worth, an 
unexpected side-light, in confirmation of the 
conclusions touching this great Pillar of Wit- 
ness. It is the more noteworthy for the details 
of the history with which it coincides. 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 303 

Outcome of the Grand Gallery. 

But if the Grand Gallery is in truth a cor- 
rect svmbol of the Church's career on earth; — 
if indeed we have here a monumental attesta- 
tion to those sacred prophecies and showings 
which the Scriptures have recorded for our 
learning touching this world's close, we are 
now so near its end, that we cannot view it 
with seriousness and not be somewhat anxious 
about the outcome from it. 

Everywhere does the holy Book inform us, 
that, as our dispensation begun with the per- 
sonal advent of the Saviour, so it is to ter- 
minate with a second advent of that same Je- 
sus, who is to come again in like manner as he 
was seen to depart forty days after his resur- 
rection. That second coming is also repre- 
sented as sudden and stealthy — not totally 
unheralded, but with the signs and announce- 
ments of it unheeded by the great body of 
mankind, including the nominal Church as 
well. Everywhere all Christian people are ex- 
horted to keep themselves in thorough readi- 
ness, for the reason that " in such an hour as 
ye think not the Son of man cometh." With- 
out these sacred instructions from Christ and 
his inspired messengers, we could not know 



304 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

these things, and could not read them from the 
Pyramid. But with the plain written word 
before us we can find here a correspondence so 
exact to the letter of Scripture, that w^e must 
refer both to the same eternal prescience, and 
may assure ourselves of the true interpretation 
of the one by the monumental attestations of 
the other. 

Our dispensation is to have an end, followed 
by a dispensation of sore judgment upon the un- 
ready when that end comes. This is Bible doc- 
trine. And so the Grand Gallery suddenly ter- 
minates against a high, impending, solid wall. 

But, although our dispensation [aiwv) is to 
come to a sudden and perpetual end, it is not 
the teaching of the Scriptures that the earth 
is then to cease to be, or that men will no 
longer live on it, or that all history is then to 
terminate. The earth will continue ; there 
will still be people upon it, and some sort of 
history will go on. But it will be a very dif- 
ferent history from that which now is. The 
dispensation will be changed, and the whole 
current and condition of things suddenly and 
greatly altered. All the commissions and ap- 
pointments under which the Church and Chris- 
tians are now acting will then expire by limita- 
tion. Everything then will come under a new 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 305 

order, determined by new manifestations from 
heaven, and shaped to a different administra- 
tion. Time will not cease; worlds will not 
be missed from their orbits; but the last day 
of this aimv will havo expired, and the period 
of judicial retribution will have set in. Such 
is the tenor of the Scriptures, and such are the 
showings in the ending of the Pyramid's Grand 
Gallery. 

There is a twofold outlet or continuity from 
this grand room of the seven courses — one 
above and one below. The one above is the 
nearest to the beginning, if we take the ver- 
tical measures of it, for the south end wall 
leans inward about one degree. If measured 
at right angles with the incline of the Gallery 
it is about three times that distance further 
off than the base of the wall. This upper 
outlet was first discovered by Nathaniel Davi- 
son in 1764. It is at the top southeast corner 
of the Grand Gallery, about twenty-eight feet 
above the main floor, '^only accessible to some- 
thing approaching to winged and flying, rather 
than walking, beings." It is a low passage, 
which the discoverer found almost closed up 
with the filth of bats, and which he with much 
labor and patience cleared out. He found it 
leading horizontally southward for about three 



806 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

hundred inches into the lowest of those ^ve 
^' Chambers of Construction," which a clerical 
correspondent thinks symbolic of degrees and 
sanctuaries of rest in the supernal life of the 
saints. The low, unfinished room over the 
King's Chamber, has the indications of a sort 
of concealed retreat, far out of the way, inac- 
cessible, except to a few, and not significant 
of a permanent abode of life. Egyptology has 
no explanation for it. Nothing in the line of 
scientific symbol has so far been found in it. 
And in biblical eschatology alone do we find 
any call for such indications, in order to fur- 
nish a thorouofh symbol of the final outcome 
from the Gospel dispensation. Note the Scrip- 
tural teachings. 

Immediately on the termination of the 
Saviour's judgments of the seven Churches, 
John, in the Apocalypse, beheld "a door 
opened in heaven," and heard a trumpet voice, 
which said, " Come up hither.^' At once he 
found himself in the Spirit, gazing upon the 
divine wonders of the higher world. This is 
the termination of the Church's earthly his- 
tory as to the best and truest part of it. The 
Saviour has elsewhere told us more plainly 
that, when the great day of judgment breaks, 
there shall be some who, by constant watch- 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 307 

fulness and prayer, shall "be accounted wor- 
thy to escape all these things that shall come 
to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man;" 
that "in that night" one in bed, or grinding 
at the mill, or out in the field, "shall be taken^^' 
while others "shall be left;^ and that those who 
are thus "taken" are '^eagles,''' who, by that 
ereption are to soar to the high unseen place, 
where the Lord, from whom they have their 
life, will then be. Paul has likewise exhorted 
us to comfort ourselves with the doctrine that, 
when the trump of God shall sound^ "the 
dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which 
are alive and remain shall be caught up to- 
gether with them in the clouds, to meet the 
Lord in the air." Such revealed facts as to 
one outcome from the dispensation that now 
is, r .1 for just such an arrangement to sym- 
bolize them as we find in this top outlet from 
the Pyramid's Grand Gallery. And there it 
is, for no other ascertainable purpose than just 
this, adding another most significant item of 
evidence that this Gallery was really intended 
to be a symbol of the Christian dispensation, 
and furnishing monumental proof, of four 
thousand years' standing, to the truthfulness 
of the literal interpretation of God's Word on 
this momentous subject. Can any fair and 



308 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

honest man believe that it just happened so? 
Have we not here "a sign and a witness unto 
the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt ?" 

The only other exit from the Grand Gallery 
is through the passage leading from it to the 
King's Chamber. It is continuous with the 
floor of the Gallery itself beyond the great 
step. If the Grand Gallery, therefore, refers 
to earthly life, so must this passage relate to 
a continuity of earthly history. It is in no 
respect the continuity of the Grand Gallery. 
That sublime chamber of the seven courses 
ends most positively against that impending 
south wall sixty-one inches beyond the great 
step. Every feature and characteristic of it 
terminates at or about that point. The same 
floor-line continues, but nothing else does. It 
answers to the idea of earthly history con- 
tinued, but put under very different condi- 
tions. The way out is as distinctly' marked 
by peculiarities of its own as the Gallery from 
which it leads. It is a low opening, of the 
same kind as that by which the Grand Gal- 
lery is entered, only that it is very sensibly 
lower. It is but forty-four inches where the 
other passages are fifty-two. It is the most 
humbling and trying part in all the Pyramid 
system of passageways. A man must pain- 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 309 

fully bend in passing through any of them, but 
here he must crouch himself down into far 
greater inconvenience. 

Sacred prediction tells of sore trials to the 
unready world when Christ comes. The eagle- 
eyed watchers are to mount up at the first 
signal to the sacred pavilion of Christs' pres- 
ence, and thus escape w^hat is then to come upon 
the earth. The true Philadelphians, who 
faithfully keep the word of their Lord's pa- 
tience, called up through the door opened in 
heaven, shall be kept from the hour of trial 
then to befall the world. But, for all else that 
live, there will then set in a period of burdens 
and griefs which shall bow them more and 
weigh them deeper down than ever mankind 
were weighed down in all the preceding his- 
tory of time. So the Scriptures everywhere 
affirm; and here is a speaking correspondence 
with what they say, as vivid as any words can 
make it. The first hair's-breadth beyond the 
line of the Grand Gallery's endingbrings the pas- 
senger down in painful humiliation, from which 
no possible relief can come for as many inches 
as there are weeks in a year. Could it be mere 
accident ? What thought or fancy freak could 
have induced the builder of a mere tomb to 
introduce such strange and incommoding, yet 

21 



310 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

such distinct and positive^ peculiarities? And 
seeing how expressively, along with the nu- 
merous other particulars, it falls in with the 
inspired records, may we not legitimately infer 
that the Spirit w^hich fashioned these other- 
wise inexplicable avenues, and studied em- 
placements of polished rocks, is the same that 
indited the holy prophecies ? 

Time of the End. 

Whether the same correspondence will hold 
good as to the number of inches in the length 
of this Grand Gallery, time only can deter- 
mine. A few years more will test and settle 
it. Meanw^hile, it is going beyond the prov- 
ince of these investigations, w^onderful as have 
been the facts brought out, to assume and 
teach that the end will certainly come in the 
precise number of years from Christ's birth 
that there are inches in the floor-line of this 
Gallery. My office in this matter has been to 
trace facts and coinciden'ces between the Pyra- 
mid and ascertained scientific and biblical 
truth, whereby to identify a wisdom in this 
mysterious pile, which could only come from 
a divine source, and so to establish the monu- 
mental reality of inspiration, but not to make 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 311 

predictions of the future. There are questions 
unsettled with regard to the precise year in 
which Christ was born, as well as some di- 
versity of results according as we construe 
the several peculiarities affecting the measure- 
ments, which must at any rate somewhat dis- 
able certainty and confidence. It is altogether 
better, therefore, to leave the number of inches 
in the length of the Grand Gallery untouched, 
and merely set ourselves to keep in watchful 
and waiting readiness for whatever may come, 
till the few years in the near future shall 
determine whether things are to turn out as 
they would seem to be indicated or not. j 

Whe7i the end of the present dispensation 
shall come has been an anxious question 
among Christians for nearly two thousand 
years. Inquiry, and desire to be informed 
about it, is the natural fruit of faith in what 
has been foretold and promised in the Scrip- 
tures. No one should be censured or lose 
caste for being concerned to know when the 
great things of his hopes are to be consum- 
mated. The holy Apostles themselves were 
deeply exercised and often inquired with ref- 
erence to this point. But God has seen best 
to throw a thick veil over it, which we should 
not obtrusively try to lift by any over-curios- 



312 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

ity of ours. And by whatever indications led 
to think our redemption on the eve of accom- 
plishment, we should never lose sight of the 
Saviour's answer to those who sought his in- 
structions on this point, namely: ''It is not for 
you to hnoio the times or the seasons, lohicli the 
Father hath put in his own poioerT It is un- 
certain and dangerous ground on which to 
adventure. Almost every century since our 
Lord's ascension has had its time set in hu- 
man speculations for his return to judge the 
quick and the dead, but thus far all such at- 
tempts to fix upon the date have utterly 
failed, to the great discomfiture of those who 
thought themselves amply assured, thus piling 
up demonstration on demonstration to the 
truth of the Master's words : " Of that day and 
that hour hnoweth 7io man.'' The Rationalistic 
world is ever parading these signal failures as 
the standing reproach of all prophetic study, 
and we put ourselves in the j)osition of very 
unapt and unwilling scholars if we are not 
effectively admonished by them to suppress 
our zeal and to practice becoming reserve 
touching specific dates of unfulfilled predic- 
tions. For more than a third of a century I 
have been much occupied with the study of 
these things, but it has not sufficed to bring 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 313 

me into the clear respecting the arithmetic 
and chronology of sacred predictions. That 
we are close upon the end, so close that we 
should be in expectant readiness every day 
and hour, I do believe and testify, as the con- 
current teaching of all the precepts, promises, 
and prophecies relating to the subject, and of 
all the light and probabilities within the reach 
of man; but just when the solemn moment 
shall arrive, or in what day or year it will 
come, I can by no means tell, and doubt if we 
ever will definitely know till the summons 
from heaven shall call the ready and waiting 
saints to meet their Redeemer in the hidden 
place beyond the clouds. If any quote me as 
holding or teaching for sacred certainty on 
this subject anything different from what I 
here express, whether it be for approval or 
blame, quote what I do not mean and never 
have meant to be understood from anything I 
have thus far said or written at any time in 
any place. History and observation have also 
shown me that the human mind is ill pre- 
pared for sober profit from indications of defi- 
nite time respecting such tremendous mat- 
ters, whatever guards, as mere conjecture, are 
thrown around them. There is nothing that 
more readily dazes the understanding and puts 



314 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

unreason on the throne, whether on the part 
of those who accept or those who cavil. I 
have betimes felt called, for purposes of gen- 
eral information, hypothetically, and without 
thought of indorsement or denial, to give what 
others thought and argued, or what was im- 
plied in interpretations extensively accepted ; 
but instead of the statements being taken as 
they were intended, with the plain and amply 
expressed reserve as to any judgment on the 
certainty of the premises involved, possibilities 
were seized upon as if they had been pro- 
nounced doctrines, likelihoods as if they had 
been given as convincing proofs, and the 
methods and conclusions of others as if they 
were my own undoubting convictions, thus 
evoking harsh and undeserved animadversions 
on the one hand, and lending unfortunate 
encouragement to fanatical assurance on the 
other. And because of this strangely feverish 
disability to deal with ordinary soberness re- 
specting even the most guarded presentations 
on this subject of the time, when the length 
of the Pyramid's Grand Gallery, viewed as a 
symbol of our dispensation, was touched in 
the preceding Lectures, I purposely left the 
figures far in the background, couching the 
statement in indefinite terms, quite sure that 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 315 

if baldly given they would be unwarrantably 
seized, magnified, and used by some as an 
alleged element of definite prophetic certainty, 
which I did not and dojiot_now consider them. 
In view, then, of all the facts of the case, 
this only needs to be added here, to wit, 
that enough appears from the present state 
of these Pyramid investigations to serve as 
a very solemn admonition to all men to be- 
think themselves of what Jehovah has fore- 
announced in his written word, and to take 
heed lest at any time their hearts be over- 
charged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and 
cares of this life, and so that day come upon 
them unawares, ^^for the day of the Lord so 
cometh as a thief in the night." The Scrip- 
tures make it the solemn duty of every one to 
be in constant readiness and expectation for 
what must shortly come to pass, no matter 
what may become of the Pyramid theory. 
Meanwhile, we incur no risk, and inflict no 
damage on ourselves or others, if we are the 
more quickened by the seeming intimations 
of this mysterious pillar to what is equally 
our duty and only security apart from any of 
these Pyramid deductions. It will not do to 
conclude and say, as a matter of faith and 
doctrine, that our Lord will certainly come 



316 A MIRACLE IN STONE. 

when the number of years from his birth has 
equalled the number of inches in the floor-line 
of the Pyramid's Grand Gallery, as that would 
be to propound for unmistakable divine truth 
what yet remains to be attested as such. But 
just as little will it do to conclude and say 
that our Lord will not then come, seeing that 
any day or hour may precipitate us into the 
midst of the opening scenes of the day of 
judgment. God only knows what the future 
will bring. And, in view of the inscrutable 
uncertainty in which He has seen fit to en- 
velop this question of ^Hhe time," the plain 
command to all is : " Watch, therefore, for 

YE KNOW NEITHER THE DAY NOR THE HOUR 
WHEREIN THE SoN OF MaN COMETH." 

With these remarks I close this discussion. 
I have, in good faith, discharged what I was 
led to consider an important duty with regard 
to this Pyramid subject. There was room, 
call, and necessity that the wonderful facts of 
the case should thus be brought out and put 
within the reach of our reading public in a 
form which could be readily followed, under- 
stood, and mastered by all. Whatever imper- 
fections may have attended my efforts^ the 
work which I proposed to myself is now done. 
I have thus furnished what may be taken as 
an adequate popular introduction to all the ex- 



A MIRACLE IN STONE. 317 

isting information touching tlie oldest, great- 
est, and most marvellous edifice on the face 
of the earth built by human hands. The 
varied and important worth of the subject to 
science, philosophj, and religious faith is my 
apology for pursuing it so far. The same 
would also be ample justification, as it should 
be a powerful incentive, to still further and 
more thorough investigations, particularly as 
we are as yet only a little way within the 
margin of what I believe is yet to come out 
of that great Pillar of Witness. I have no re- 
grets for having bestowed so much valuable 
time and diligent labor in this direction. I 
have been abundantly rewarded in the satis- 
faction the study has afforded me, in the new 
fields of learning and thought it has incident- 
ally opened to me, and in the clue it has 
given me to many things of worth which I 
never otherwise could have reached. And if 
any have been, or shall be, moved by my 
endeavors to follow my example in trying to 
search and construe this sublime memorial of 
the primeval world, I feel sure that they will 
m the end agree that I have not spoken 
without reason, and that I have not erred 
in pronouncing the Great Pyramid of E-ynt 
A Miracle in Stone. 

21 



S18 A MIRACLE IN STONE, 



Gazing, rapt, awed, upon that mighty pile, 
The mind is filled with wonder, and we ask, 

Is it a tomb or teacher ? Whence its style ? 

What men, what age conceived, achieved the task? 

Wonder of wonders in this land of Nile, 

Of what great thought is it the type and mask 1 

Its chambers, passages, mysterious Coffer, 
Its layers, angles, measurements, and stone. 

All, each, to unsealed eyes of men now offer 
Solutions (for four thousand years unknown) 

Of truths which stand against the doubting scoffer, 
The clearer from their test, as fully shown. 

How, in its presence, modern pride is bowed! 

Its hoary wisdom whispering from the dead, 
Sublime, mysterious, awful, with the shroud 

Of forty centuries wrapped around its head ! 
We catch its muffled tones, now low, now loudj 

And hear with wonder nigh akin to dread. 




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